Turkish Treasury posts $9.4B cash deficit in first half

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

The Turkish Treasury's cash balance saw a deficit of 38.3 billion Turkish liras (around $9.36 billion) between January and June, the Treasury Undersecretariat announced on Friday.

The Treasury received 363.6 billion liras ($88.89 billion) in cash revenue in the first six months of this year, while expenditures stood at 405.5 billion liras ($99.14 billion).

During the first half of 2018, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 373.2 billion liras ($91.23 billion).

Interest payments were 32.3 billion liras ($7.9 billion), one of the top contributors to the Treasury's cash balance deficit in the same period.

The Treasury collected 2.6 billion liras ($883.1 million) revenues from privatization or fund income -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, land sale revenues, etc. -- in the same period.

The cash balance -- a $9.4 billion deficit -- represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, in the first six months of 2018.

Last year, the Treasury's cash balance ran a deficit of 60.4 billion liras ($16.5 billion). The 12-month revenue plus privatization or fund income amounted to 636.6 billion liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures in 2017 -- including interest payments -- surpassed 697 billion liras ($191 billion).

The six-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this year was around 4.1, while last year one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average.