Turkey posts budget deficit of $4.6B in September after two months of surplus

Duvar English

Turkey’s central government budget posted a deficit of 129.2 billion Turkish liras (approximately $4.63 billion) in September, according to the official data released by the Treasury and Finance Ministry on Oct. 16.

The budget posted a surplus of 48.6 billion liras in July and 51.3 billion liras in August. September is the first month with the deficit after two months.

In September, the budget reported total expenditures of 570.5 billion liras and total revenues of 441.3 billion liras. Meanwhile, interest expenditures experienced a significant year-on-year increase of 113.7 percent, reaching 70.8 billion liras. 

Tax revenues saw a substantial rise of 122.6 percent, amounting to 386.2 billion liras during this period.

The Turkish government in early July implemented significant tax hikes, including a 2% increase in the value-added tax (VAT). Economists anticipate that this VAT increase will generate an additional income of 30 billion liras for the government this year.

Domestic VAT increased by 248.5 percent year-on-year to 55.9 billion TL. Motor Vehicle Tax revenues were realized as 1.38 billion liras.

Personnel expenditures increased by 118.5 percent on an annual basis to 134.4 billion liras in September. 

During the January-September period, central government budget expenditures amounted to 3.952 trillion liras, while budget revenues were 3.440 trillion liras, resulting in a budget deficit of 512.6 billion liras. 

The primary budget expenditures totaled 3.48 trillion liras, with a primary deficit of 41.7 billion liras. 

In the same period of 2022, the central government budget had a deficit of 45.5 billion liras.