Turkey’s budget sees $9.2B deficit in Jan-April

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey’s central government budget balance saw a deficit of nearly 54.5 billion Turkish liras ($9.17 billion) in the first four months of 2019, an official data revealed on Wednesday.

The country's budget revenues soared by 18.9% to hit 275.95 billion Turkish liras ($46.5 billion) year-on-year in the January-April period, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said.

Turkey's budget expenditures were 330.4 billion Turkish liras ($55.6 billion) in the four-month period, up 29.5% versus the same period of last year.

Excluding the interest payments, the budget balance posted a deficit of 16 billion Turkish liras ($2.7 billion) in the period, while the interest expenditures were 38.45 billion Turkish liras ($6.5 billion).

Tax incomes of the government rose by 6.4% to 203 billion Turkish liras ($34.2 billion) during the period, on a yearly basis.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.94 as of end of April.

Last year, Turkey's central government budget balance showed a deficit of 72.6 billion Turkish liras ($14.8 billion), meeting a year-end target under the country's new economic program announced in September last year.

The government achieved the target of 1.9% budget-deficit-to-gross-domestic-product ratio in 2018 under the program.

According to the same program, the budget deficit/GDP ratio target is 1.8% this year, 1.9% next year, and 1.7% in 2021.

The government's year-end budget balance target is negative 80.6 billion Turkish liras ($13.3 billion), with 880.4 billion Turkish liras ($145.5 billion) revenue, and 960.97 billion Turkish liras ($158.8 billion) expenses.