Türkiye posts $2.5B budget deficit in March

By Tuba Ongun

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye’s central government budget posted a deficit of 47.2 billion Turkish liras ($2.5 billion) in March, according to official data released on Monday.

Budget revenues amounted to 286.8 billion Turkish liras ($15.1 billion), while expenditures totaled 334 billion liras ($17.6 billion) last month, the Treasury and Finance Ministry figures showed.

Non-interest expenditures were at 289 billion Turkish liras ($15.2 billion), while interest payments came in at 45.1 billion Turkish liras ($2.4 billion) in March.

Excluding interest payments, the budget balance saw a 2.1 billion Turkish liras ($113 million) deficit last month, while tax revenues reached 198.6 billion Turkish liras ($10.5 billion).

One US dollar traded for 19.0020 Turkish liras on average in March, while a dollar traded for 18.8500 Turkish liras on average in the first two months of 2023.

- Cumulative figure

In January-February, the budget balance ran a deficit of 250 billion Turkish liras ($13.2 billion).

Budget revenues reached 794.7 billion Turkish liras ($42.2 billion) in the first three months, while expenditures amounted to 1 trillion Turkish liras ($55.4 billion).