Turkey posts $3.1B budget surplus in March

ANKARA

The Turkish central government registered a budget surplus of 23.76 billion Turkish liras ($3.1 billion) in March, official data revealed on Thursday.

The figure marked an improvement from a deficit of 43.7 billion Turkish liras ($5.7 billion) in March 2020, according to the Treasury and Finance Ministry’s data.

The country's budget revenues reached 134.9 billion Turkish liras ($17.6 billion) last month, an annual rise of 184%.

Turkey’s budget expenditures were 111.1 billion Turkish liras ($14.5 billion) in March, up 21% year-on-year.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, posted a surplus of 37.9 billion Turkish liras ($4.95 million) last month.

Tax revenues amounted to 77.4 billion Turkish liras ($10.1 billion), while interest payments were 14.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.85 billion).

One US dollar traded for 7.65 Turkish liras on average this March and 7.39 Turkish liras in the first three months of 2021.

Cumulative figure

In the January-March period, the budget balance saw a surplus of 22.8 billion Turkish liras ($3 billion), while it posted a deficit of 29.5 billion Turkish liras (some $4 billion) in the same period last year.

Budget revenues totaled 344.1 billion Turkish liras ($46.6 billion) in the first three months of 2021, while expenditures stood at 321.3 billion Turkish liras ($43 billion).

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, saw a surplus of 71.7 billion Turkish liras ($9.7 billion) in the January-March period.