Turkey to keep cautious fiscal policy stance, says finance minister

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkey’s January budget data was in line with 2015 targets, and Ankara will maintain a cautious stance in fiscal policies this year, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimsek said Feb. 16.

Turkish economic activity was somewhat negatively affected by recent market volatility but its impact on January budget revenues was limited, Şimşek said in a written statement following release of the budget figures.

“We will keep our cautious fiscal policy stance as we had done earlier. Our government showed a budget performance much higher than the targets in 2014, although two elections were made and the economic activity slowed down,” Şimşek said.

The budget had around 3.8 billion liras ($1.5 billion) of surplus and 8.8 billion liras ($3.5 billion) of non-interest surplus in January.

The same figures were 1.9 billion liras and 6.9 billion liras, respectively, in January 2014.

“These results are in line with the 2015 targets, which envisage around 21 billion liras of budget deficit and 33 billion liras of non-interest surplus in total,” said Şimşek. 

The budget incomes increased up to 40.1 billion liras ($16.3 billion) in January 2015 by a 5.8 percent increase from the same month of the previous year, and expenses rose up to 36.3 billion liras ($14.7 billion) by a slight increase, according to data released by the finance ministry.

The tax income reached up to 34.9 billion liras ($14.2 billion) in January this year, a 6.6 percent increase from the same month of the previous year.