Türkiye's budget registered a deficit of TL 310.1 billion ($8.47 billion) in February, more than doubling the gap in the previous month, official data showed on Monday.
The budget showed a primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, of TL 170.4 billion, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said.
The budget had posted a TL 139.3 billion gap in January, way lower compared to the TL 829.2 billion shortfall in December.
The February deficit took the January-February shortfall to TL 449.4 billion, with a primary gap of 146.6 billion.
The data showed some TL 22.9 billion was transferred to the state-owned electricity generation company EÜAŞ in February.
That brought the total current transfers to the company in the first two months to TL 37.1 billion.
No transfers were made to the state energy company BOTAŞ in February, following the TL 35 billion transfer in January.
The budget deficit surged to a record TL 2.11 trillion in 2024, driven by high inflation and increases in spending due to election-related expenditures and the aftermath of the devastating February 2023 earthquakes.
The government projects a reduction in the deficit to around 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2025 from about 4.9% in 2024, citing anticipated decreases in quake-related spending.
Türkiye maintained a budget gap to GDP ratio of around 1% from 2013 to 2016, supported by low public debt. However, the shortfall steadily expanded, reaching 3.5% of GDP in 2020 and ending 2021 at 2.8%. It came in below 1% in 2022, compared to the 3.5% target.
In 2023, escalating expenditures, particularly those related to the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that struck the southern region in February of that year, pushed the deficit to approximately 5.4% of GDP.
