Türkiye's budget recorded a surplus of TL 96.7 billion ($2.34 billion) in August, according to the Treasury and Finance Ministry data released on Monday.
The budget revenues were at TL 1.3 trillion last month, while expenditures totaled TL 1.19 trillion, the data showed.
The primary balance, which excludes interest payments, posted a surplus of TL 276.4 billion in the same period.
Interest payments amounted to TL 179.7 billion in the month.
From January through August, the budget ran a deficit of TL 907.6 billion, with revenues of TL 7.98 trillion and expenditures of TL 8.89 trillion.
Non-interest budget balance posted a surplus of TL 518 billion over the eight-month period.
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 gap to around 3.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2025 from about 4.9% in 2024, according to its newly updated medium-term program.
It sees the figure dropping to 3.5% in 2026, 3.1% in 2027 and 2.8% in 2028.
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 before escalating quake-related expenditures pushed it to approximately 5.4% of GDP.
In absolute terms, the gap is forecast at TL 2.21 trillion in 2024, before rising to TL 2.71 trillion in 2026, TL 2.74 trillion in 2027 and TL 2.81 trillion in 2028, according to the government's program.
The program also projects a shift to a primary surplus next year, with the primary balance expected to reach TL 500 billion by 2028.
