Turkish government runs $267M budget surplus in November

ANKARA

Turkey’s government has run a surplus budget of 798 million liras ($267 million) in November, Turkish Finance Minister Naci Agbal said Tuesday.

However, the government's budget deficit during the January-November 2015 period stood at 5.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion), Agbal said in a statement.

The government's expenses for health, pension and welfare increased by 2.5 percent in the first 11 months of the year to 74.6 billion liras ($25 billion) compared with the same period last year.

The country, which comprises of 81 provinces, also spent more than 41.6 billion liras ($14 billion) on local administration expenses, which was an increase of 19.6 percent from the same period last year.

According to the ministry, Turkey's government budget revenue reached 441.8 billion Turkish liras ($148.3 billion) in the first 11 months of 2015, which was a 14.2 percent increase compared with the same period last year. Tax revenue also increased by 16 percent within the period to 372.8 billion liras.

Budget expenditures between January-November rose to 447.2 billion Turkish liras ($150 billion) marking a 12.3 percent increase year-on-year. Interest expenses stood at 51.3 billion liras ($17.2 billion) in that period.

Government revenue in November stood at 43.8 billion Turkish liras ($14.7 billion) with 11.7 percent increase year-on-year, while budget expenditure was 43 billion Turkish liras ($14.4 billion), up 20.7 percent from a year earlier.

In 2014, Turkish Finance Ministry estimated that budget expenses for the fiscal year would reach 473 billion Turkish liras ($192 billion), while budget income would reach 451 billion ($183.5 billion), resulting in a budget deficit of 21 billion Turkish liras ($8.6 billion).

The Turkish central government's budget ran a deficit of 22.7 billion Turkish liras ($10 billion) in 2014.