This May, Turkey's current account balance posted a $151 million surplus, up from a $6.17 billion deficit in the same month last year, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) announced.

In the balance of payments figures released early Thursday, the bank said the country's 12-month rolling deficit totaled $2.37 billion.

An Anadolu Agency survey on Monday showed that economists had forecast a surplus of $300 million.

Projections of a group of 14 economists ranged from a $600 million deficit to a $900 million surplus for the fifth month of 2019. The survey also showed that the end-2019 current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $8.1 billion, with estimates ranging from $1.7 billion to $13.5 billion.

"This development in the current account is mainly attributable to a $5.85 billion decrease in the goods deficit, recording a net outflow of $706 million, as well as a $594 million increase in services inflow to $2.3 billion," the CBRT said.

The bank said when gold and energy were excluded from the current account, it saw a $3.47 billion surplus in May, in contrast to a $1.2 billion deficit in the same month a year ago.

Travel items under services recorded a net inflow of $1.84 billion, increasing by $257 million on a yearly basis, it added.

Last year, the current account balance posted a deficit of around $27.6 billion, improving from a nearly $47.5 billion deficit in 2017.

The figure was the lowest since 2009, while Turkey's highest annual current account deficit over the last decade was in 2011 at $74.4 billion. The country's new economic program, announced last September, targets a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3.3 percent this year.