Turkish Treasury posts $2.9B cash deficit in Jan-May

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Treasury's cash balance saw a deficit of 11.5 billion Turkish liras (around $2.9 billion) between January and May, the Treasury Undersecretariat announced on Thursday.

The Treasury received 310.5 billion liras ($77.8 billion) in cash revenue in the first five months of this year, while expenditures stood at 324.5 billion liras ($81.3 billion).

Over the same period, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 294.1 billion Turkish liras ($73.7 billion).

Interest payments were 30.4 billion liras ($7.6 billion), one of the top contributors to the Treasury's cash balance deficit in the same period.

The Treasury collected 2.5 billion liras ($626 million) revenues from privatization or fund income -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, land sale revenues, etc. -- in the same period.

The cash balance -- a $2.9 billion deficit -- represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, in the first five months of 2018.

Last year, the Treasury's cash balance ran a deficit of 60.4 billion liras ($16.5 billion). The 12-month revenue plus privatization or fund income amounted to 636.6 billion liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures in 2017 -- including interest payments -- surpassed 697 billion liras ($191 billion).

The five-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this year was around 3.99, while last year one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average.