Turkey: Treasury posts $6.6B cash deficit in April

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Treasury's cash balance this April posted a deficit of 46.2 billion Turkish liras ($6.6 billion), the Treasury and Finance Ministry said Friday.

Cash revenues of the Treasury totaled 65.8 billion Turkish liras ($9.4 billion) last month, up 6.8% from April 2019.

Its expenditures, including interest payments of around 16.5 billion liras ($2.4 billion), hit some 112.8 billion liras ($16.2 billion), an annual surge of 47%.

Non-interest expenditures amounted to 96.3 billion liras ($13.8 billion), driving a 30.5 billion liras ($4.4 billion) deficit in the primary balance.

The Treasury received 765 million liras ($110 million) from the privatization or fund income in April -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments and land sale revenues.

Last month, the cash deficit of $6.6 billion represented the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 6.98 at the end of April.