‘Turkey will continue to pursue tight fiscal policy with 2015’s budget’

Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek made a press statement in Ankara on Wednesday regarding 2014 budget goals and 2015 budget proposal that will be proposed to the Turkish Parliament's approval.

Minister Şimşek stated that the budget deficit for the nine month period realized as 11.9 billion TL and non-interest deficit as 4.6 billion TL.

"2014 Budget deficit will be lower than the annual goal" Şimşek said, stating that 2014's budget deficit is expected as 24.4 billion and primary surplus as 25.8 billion TL, with budget deficit would only be 1.4 percent of Turkey's GDP instead of 1.9 percent.

Budget expenses for the nine month period increased by 10.5 percent to 325.4 billion TL, while budget revenues for the same period increased by 8.1 percent to 313.5 billion TL, Şimşek said.

"Turkey will continue to pursue tight fiscal policy with 2015's budget" Şimşek said. "Although there is an election in 2015, 2015's budget will not be an election budget."

Turkey's 2015 budget expenses are expected as 472.9 million TL and budget revenues as 452 million TL Şimşek added, and the government will continue to curb the inflation and current account deficit (CAD) in order to achieve higher growth rates.

"If the current downtrend in oil prices continue, we can see that CAD will decrease under 5 percent of Turkey's GDP" Şimşek said. "Turkey cannot accept 3-4 percent growth rates, we should re-align ourselves in high growth path."