The government budget saw a significant surplus in June and for the first half of the year, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said at a conference yesterday. The surplus shows that the government did not engage in special spending during the election, Şimşek said, adding, "The AK Party [Justice and Development Party] government maintained fiscal discipline despite the populist conduct of the opposition parties."

The surplus in June improved to TL 3.2 billion ($1.2 billion) from a TL 613 million deficit in same month last year, Şimşek said. The report shows that the central government budget, which ran a deficit of TL 3.4 billion in first half of last year, posted a surplus of TL 804 million in the same period of 2015.

Budget expenditures in the first half of the year rose to TL 237.5 billion, a 12.8 percent increase year-on-year, while revenue in the same period was TL 236.7 billion -- an annual 10.7 percent increase. The primary budget surplus rose to TL 30.5 billion in the first half of the year from TL 23.1 billion a year earlier.

"These figures prove how strong our budget performance was," Şimşek said.