Turkey's budget balance posts $880M deficit in January-May

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government registered a budget deficit of 7.5 billion Turkish liras (some $880 million) in January-May, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The figure improved from a deficit of 90 billion Turkish liras (some $10.5 billion) in the same period last year.

Turkey's budget revenues increased 39.4% year-on-year to 542.4 billion Turkish liras ($63.5 billion) in the first five months of 2021.

The country's budget expenditures totaled some 550 billion Turkish liras ($64.4 billion) from January to May, up 14.8% from a year ago.

The budget balance excluding interest payments posted a surplus of 73.9 billion Turkish liras ($8.6 billion) in January-May.

Tax revenues totaled 423.7 billion Turkish liras ($49.6 billion), while interest payments were 81.45 billion Turkish liras ($9.54 billion) in the same period.

One US dollar traded for 8.37 Turkish liras on average in May and 7.74 in the first five months of this year.

- Monthly figure

In May, the central government registered a deficit of 13.4 billion Turkish liras (some $1.6 billion), down from 17.3 billion Turkish liras ($2 billion) in the same month of last year.

The budget revenue was 104.5 billion Turkish liras ($12.25 billion) last month, jumping 53.5% on a yearly basis.

Turkey's budget expenditures increased 38% from last May to 117.9 billion Turkish liras ($13.8 billion) this May.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance registered a surplus of 575 Turkish liras ($67.3 million) in May 2021.