Turkish budget deficit $2.7 billion in April 2014

ANKARA — Turkey's budget deficit in April 2014 ran at 2.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion), Turkey's Finance Ministry said on Thursday. In the same period a year earlier, the country ran a budget surplus of 595 million lira ($287 million).

Turkey's budgetary expenses increased by 23.1 percent to 36.8 billion TL ($18 billion) in April 2014 while its income increased by 11.7 percent reaching 34.1 billion lira ($16.5 billion), compared to April 2013.

In a written statement released on Thursday, Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that the expenses were high because of an increase in financing of the Social Security Institution and a rise in state's employees payments. Expenses for the state-owned gas company BOTAS have also been augmenting during the winter months.

Şimşek expects the country to meet its annual 2014 general budget deficit target of 33.3 billion TL ($15.3 billion) despite high numbers in budget deficits in recent months.

Meanwhile, Turkey ran a budget deficit of 4.2 billion Turkish liras (approximately $2 billion) for the January-April period, according to Turkey's Finance Ministry. This number constitutes 12.6 percent of the estimated budget deficit of this year, which stands at 33.3 billion Turkish liras.

Turkey's budgetary expenses increased by 14.1 percent to 142.6 billion TL ($68.8 billion) for the first four months of 2014, compared to the same period last year, while its income increased by 11 percent, reaching 138.4 billion lira ($66.7 billion).

Separately, the Ministry has estimated budget expenses for 2014 fiscal year at 436.4 billion lira ($196.5 billion), while budget income for 2014 is estimated at 403.2 billion lira ($181.6 billion), resulting in a budget deficit of 33.3 billion lira ($14.9 billion).