Turkish Treasury posts $2.7B cash deficit in March

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish Treasury's cash balance posted a deficit of 14.95 billion Turkish liras ($2.69 billion) in March, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said on Friday.

Last month, the Treasury's cash revenues amounted 68.57 billion Turkish liras (nearly $11.2 billion), up 11.5 percent on a yearly basis.

Its expenditures -- including interest payments of 11.2 billion Turkish liras ($2 billion) -- also rose 22.2 percent to 83.52 billion Turkish liras ($15 billion).

In March, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures were 72.3 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion).

During the first quarter of this year -- January to March -- the country's revenues and expenditures reached 225.3 billion Turkish liras ($40.6 billion) and 263.3 billion Turkish liras ($47.4 billion), respectively.

The country's cash balance deficit was 37.83 billion Turkish liras ($6.8 billion) during the first three months of the current year.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.55 as of the end of last month.