Türkiye's budget deficit at $13.6B in Q1

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye's budget deficit in the first quarter of this year was 257.83 billion Turkish liras ($13.65 billion), official figures showed on Friday.

The Turkish Treasury and Finance Ministry said its revenues totaled 801.15 billion liras ($42.4 billion) in the first three months of this year, up 30.8% on a yearly basis.

Budget expenditures amounted to 1.06 trillion liras ($55.7 billion) during the same period, up 57% from January-March 2022.

During the first quarter, the budget also earned 3.2 billion liras ($169 million) from privatization moves.

The primary balance – excluding interest payments – was at minus 172.68 billion liras ($9.1 billion) in the three-month period.

In March alone, the country's budget deficit was 32 billion liras ($1.68 billion).

The average USD/TRY exchange rate was 18.9 in the first quarter and 19 in March, according to Central Bank data.