ANKARA
The government budget saw a significant surplus in June, and for the first half of the year, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in a conference on Tuesday.
The surplus shows that the government did not engage in special spending during the election, Simsek said. “The AK Party government maintained fiscal discipline despite the populist conduct of the opposition parties."
The surplus in the June improved to 3.2 billion liras ($1.2 billion) from a 613 million liras ($230 million) deficit in same month last year, Simsek said.
The report showed that central government budget, which run a deficit of 3.4 billion liras ($1.28 billion) in first half of last year, posted a surplus amounted to 804 million liras ($303 million) in same period of 2015.
Budget expenditures in first half of year rose to 237.5 billion liras ($89.6 billion), indicating a 12.8 percent increase year-on-year while revenue in same period was 236.7 billion liras ($89.3 billion) with an annual 10.7 percent increase.
The primary budget surplus rose to 30.5 billion liras ($11.5 billion) in the first half, from 23.1 billion liras ($8.7 billion) a year earlier.
"These figures proved how strong our budget performance was," Simsek said.
