BY DAILY SABAH WITH AGENCIES
Turkey’s central government budget swung to a deficit in June, official data showed Monday, driven by an increase in spending on current transfers and personnel wages.
The budget showed a deficit of TL 31 billion ($1.77 billion) last month, data from the Treasury and Finance Ministry showed, with a primary deficit of TL 18.3 billion.
The figure compares to a record surplus of TL 144 billion registered in May, propelled by a surge in tax income.
The data showed that budget revenues rose nearly 105% year-over-year to hit TL 181.2 billion in June. Tax revenue jumped 108.4% from a year ago to TL 152.6 billion.
Expenditures were up over 87% to TL 212.8 billion. Spending on wages jumped 58.6% to TL 42.5 billion in the month. Current transfers, which include financial aid made to households, more than doubled to TL 107 billion.
Non-interest spending amounted to 199.3 billion, marking a 91.7% year-over-year increase.
On the other hand, interest payments were almost TL 12.7 billion, up 35.6% during the same month.
In the first half of the year, the budget showed a surplus of TL 93.6 billion and a primary surplus of TL 228.2 billion, the data showed.
Daily Sabah