Turkey’s covert state expenses jump 90 percent in November

Neşe Karanfil - ANKARA

AA photo

Turkey’s covert state expenses increased by 90 percent to 221.5 million Turkish Liras ($74.8 million) in November, as the overall state budget posted a 798 million-lira ($270 million) surplus.  

The budget had posted a 3.6 billion-lira ($1.2 billion) surplus last November. 

While covert expenses were 992.8 million liras ($336 million) in the first 11 months of 2014, this figure rose to 1.6 billion liras ($541.5 million) in the same period this year. 

The government’s budget deficit during the January-November 2015 period stood at 5.4 billion liras ($1.8 billion), Turkish Finance Minister Naci Ağbal said in a statement on Dec. 15. The budget posted an 11.4 billion-lira ($3.8 billion) deficit in the same period of 2014. 

The government ran a budget surplus of 798 million liras ($267 million) in November, he added.

Budget revenue in November stood at 43.8 billion liras ($14.7 billion) with an 11.7 percent increase year-on-year, while expenditures were 43 billion liras ($14.4 billion), up 20.8 percent from a year earlier. Interest expenses rose by 21.4 percent to 3.9 billion liras ($1.3 billion) in November from the same month of 2014, while tax revenues increased by 12.3 percent ($13.3 billion) in the same period. 

Turkey’s government budget revenue reached 441.8 billion liras ($149 billion) in the first 11 months of 2015, a 14.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Tax revenue also increased by 16 percent within the same period. 

Meanwhile, Turkey’s state budget hit a 7.2 billion-lira surplus ($2.4 billion) in October largely thanks to payments made by leading communications companies that won the tender for advanced 4G technologies, dubbed “4.5G.”

Last October, the budget had a deficit of 3 billion liras ($1 billion).