Turkey's budget posts $21.8B deficit in 2019

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's central government budget balance posted a deficit of 123.7 billion Turkish liras ($21.77 billion) in 2019, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Turkey's budget revenues rose 15.5% to hit 875.8 billion Turkish liras ($154.19 billion) year-on-year in the January-December period, according to the official data.

The country's budget expenditures reached 999.49 billion Turkish liras ($175.96 billion) in the year, up 20.3% from the previous year.

Excluding interest payments, the budget balance posted a deficit of 23.75 billion Turkish liras ($4.18 billion) in the period, while interest expenditures totaled some 99.94 billion Turkish liras ($17.59 billion).

Government tax revenues reached 673.3 billion Turkish liras ($118.5 billion) from January to December, showing a rise of 8.3% on a yearly basis.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate averaged 5.68 during 2019.

In 2018, Turkey's central government budget balance had shown a deficit of 72.6 billion Turkish liras ($14.8 billion), meeting a year-end target of a 1.9% budget-deficit-to-gross-domestic-product (GDP) ratio.

The country's economic program, announced last September, aims to keep the budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio at 2.9% in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Turkish Statistical Institute will release GDP figures in March.