Turkish Treasury sees $1.3B cash deficit in September

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Friday that the Treasury's cash balance last month saw a deficit of 8.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).

In September, the Treasury's cash revenues amounted to 62.2 billion Turkish liras ($9.7 billion), showing a 32.6 percent jump on a yearly basis.

Including interest payments of 10.7 billion liras ($1.6 billion), expenditures surged 23.2 percent to 70.5 billion liras ($11 billion).

Official figures showed that non-interest expenditures totaled 59.8 billion liras ($9.4 billion), marking a 2.3 billion lira ($363 million) surplus in the primary balance.

The Treasury received 165 million liras ($26 million) from the privatization or fund income last month -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, and land sale revenues.

In September, the cash deficit of $1.3 billion represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments.

Last month, one U.S. dollar exchanged for 6.38 Turkish liras on average.