Turkey's budget posts $3.6B surplus in January

ISTANBUL

Turkish central government budget balance saw a surplus of 21.5 billion Turkish liras ($3.6 billion) in January, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said on Monday.

Turkey's budget revenues rose 26% to hit 122.17 billion Turkish liras ($20.6 billion) year-on-year in January, the official data showed.

The country's budget expenditure was 100.67 billion Turkish liras ($17 billion) in the month, up 9.6% from the same month of last year.

Excluding interest payments, the budget balance also saw a surplus of 34.25 billion Turkish liras ($5.77 billion) in January, while interest expenditures totaled some 12.74 billion Turkish liras ($2.1 billion).

Government tax revenues reached 67.4 billion Turkish liras ($11.3 billion) last month, posting a 21% rise on annual basis.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate averaged 5.93 in January.

In 2019, Turkey's central government budget balance posted a deficit of $21.77 billion, with $154.2 billion revenue and $175.9 billion expenses.

The country's economic program, announced last September, aims to keep the budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio at 2.9% in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The Turkish Statistical Institute will release GDP figures for 2019 in March.