June 18, 2018•Update: June 18, 2018
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA
Turkey's central government budget balance saw a surplus of 2.7 billion Turkish liras ($612.5 million) in May, the Finance Ministry announced Monday.
Last month Turkey's budget revenues amounted to 70 billion Turkish liras ($15.8 billion), up nearly 22 percent on a yearly basis, according to official data.
Budget expenditures in May were 67.3 billion Turkish liras ($15.2 billion), an annual hike of around 32 percent.
Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a surplus of 8.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.97 billion) last month.
Official figures also said the budget saw a deficit of 20.4 billion Turkish liras ($5.1 billion) in the January-May period.
In the five-month period, Turkey's budget revenues reached some 302 billion Turkish liras ($76 billion), an 18.3 percent annual rise.
This January to May, budget expenditures rose nearly 21 percent compared to same period last year, totaling 322.5 billion Turkish liras ($81 billion).
Interest payments were 31.4 billion Turkish liras ($7.9 billion), while tax revenues amounted to 252 billion Turkish liras ($63.3 billion) over the same period.
The budget balance excluding interest payments saw a surplus of some 11 billion Turkish liras ($2.75 billion) in the January-May period.
The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in May was 4.42, while one dollar was trading for 3.98 liras on average in the first five months this year, according to the Turkish Central Bank.
In 2017, Turkey's budget deficit/GDP ratio was around 1.5 percent -- below the targets noted in the country's Medium-Term Program (MTP).
According to the MTP, the budget deficit/GDP ratio target is 1.9 percent this year, 1.8 percent next year, and 1.6 percent in 2020.
