Turkey’s budget posted a deficit of $59B in 2023, hit seven times of previous year

Duvar English

In 2023, Turkey's central government budget recorded expenditures of 6.58 trillion liras, with budget revenues amounting to 5.21 trillion liras. As a result, the country posted a budget deficit of 1.37 trillion liras, according to the data released by the Treasury and Finance Ministry.

A dollar traded for 29.1012 liras on average in December 2023, and 23.3111 liras in average in 2023.

The figure deteriorated from a deficit of 142.7 billion liras ($8.6 billion) in 2022, hit nearly seven times of the previous year.

In the January-December 2023 period, central government budget expenditures increased by 123.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, while non-interest budget expenditures increased by 124.6 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

While revenues increased by 86.1 per cent compared to 2022, tax revenue collection increased by 91.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

Non-interest expenditures were 5.9 trillion liras ($253.6B) and the primary deficit was 700.4 billion liras ($30B).

Interest payments came in at 674.6 billion liras ($28.9B) while while tax revenues reached 4.5 trillion liras ($193.1B).

In December 2023, the budget balance registered a deficit of 842.5 billion liras ($28.9 billion), following a surplus of 75.6 billion liras ($2.6 billion) in November. Budget revenues amounted to 449.9 billion liras ($18.9 billion) in December, while expenditures reached 1.4 trillion liras ($47.8 billion).