ANKARA

Turkey's current account balance posted a deficit of $2.4 billion in September, the country's Central Bank revealed on Wednesday.

The figure was a $2.8 billion surplus in the same month last year and down from $4.6 billion deficit in August 2020, the bank said.

Bringing 12-month rolling deficit to $27.5 billion as of September, current account deficit was below market expectations.

An Anadolu Agency survey on Monday showed that economists expected a deficit of $2.7 billion.

A group of 19 economists' estimates for the month ranged between $2.2 billion and $4.5 billion.

The survey showed the end-2020 current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $32.7 billion.

The increase in the current account deficit is mainly attributable to an increase of $3 billion in the goods deficit that recorded a net outflow of $3.7 billion in the month, the bank said.

It also attributed the rise to net inflow of $1.7 billion in services item, which decreased by $2.9 billion compared to the same month last year.

The bank said gold and energy excluded current account amounted to $3.2 billion surplus, compared to $6 billion surplus in September 2019. 

Travel item under services saw a net inflow of $1.6 billion, down $1.9 billion year-on-year.