Turkish parliament to start 2018 budget debate Tuesday

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The parliament will begin its two-month long debate on the 2018 budget on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Naci Agbal will present the budget to the parliament's Planning and Budget Commission on Tuesday.

The commission will debate the 2018 budget until Nov. 23, which would then be referred to the general assembly where it would be discussed at the beginning of December.

The budget contains an increase in education expenditure to 134 billion liras ($37 billion), including investments of 14.3 billion liras ($3.97 billion) that comes to around 18 percent of total public investment.

Turkey is targeting 762.8 billion liras in expenditures and 696.8 billion liras in revenue in 2018, along with nearly 600 billion Turkish liras in tax revenue.

The draft has around 85 billion Turkish liras ($23.6 billion) slated for public investments, with nearly 30 percent of that going to transportation, while healthcare and agriculture would get 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the economy grew beyond expectations in the first quarter at 5.2 percent and 5.1 percent in the second quarter.

During the past three years, the country's economy expanded by 5.2 percent in 2014, 6.1 percent in 2015, and 2.9 percent in 2016.

Ankara is targeting a growth of 5.5 percent this year as well as through 2020, according to a medium-term economic program announced Sept. 27.