Turkey: Budget balance posts $11.6B gap in Jan-April

ANKARA

The Turkish central government registered a 72.8 billion Turkish lira (some $11.6 billion) budget deficit in January-April, the Treasury and Finance Ministry reported Friday.

The country's budget revenues reached 321 billion Turkish liras ($51 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 16% year-on-year.

Budget expenditures rose 19% on an annual basis to hit 393.8 billion Turkish liras (62.5 billion) from January to April – marking a 72.8 billion Turkish lira (some $11.6 billion) gap.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, posted a deficit of 17.5 billion Turkish liras ($2.8 billion) in the first four months of this year.

Official figures showed that tax revenues surged 10.8% to 225.2 billion Turkish liras ($35.8 billion), while interest payments were 55.3 billion Turkish liras ($8.8 billion) over the same period.

- Monthly figures

In April, the budget balance also saw a deficit of 43.2 billion Turkish liras ($6.3 billion).

Turkey's budget revenues totaled 65.2 billion Turkish liras ($9.5 billion) last month, down 13% on a yearly basis.

Budget expenditures in April were 108.4 billion Turkish liras ($15.8 billion), a rise of 42% annually.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a gap of 26.2 million Turkish liras ($3.8 billion) last month.

The average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in April was 6.85, while one dollar traded for 6.30 liras on average in the first four months of 2020.