Turkish budget in surplus in July

Weekly jobless claims rise 9,000 to 220,000

ANKARA, Aug 15, (RTRS): The Turkish budget showed a surplus of 9.9 billion lira ($1.8 billion) in July supported by one-off revenues including the partial transfer of central bank legal reserves, data showed on Thursday.

Last month, the Turkish parliament passed a law that allows central bank legal reserves, estimated to be some 40 billion lira, to be transferred to the Treasury, a move aimed at supporting the deteriorating budget.

The core fiscal outlook of the budget, excluding one-off revenues such as a construction amnesty, a tax amnesty and the transfer of legal reserves, worsened, QNB Finansbank said in a note to clients.

“We estimate that remaining portion (of central bank legal reserves) is already transferred in the beginning of August,” QNB Finansbank said, adding that the budget deficitto-GDP ratio will decline temporarily towards Ankara’s year-end target in August.

QNB Finansbank said it maintained its 2.8% budget deficit-toGDP ratio forecast for year-end.

In July, other income excluding taxes increased by 487.3% to 32.6 billion lira when compared to the same period last year, the Treasury and Finance Ministry data showed.

The July budget showed a primary surplus, which excludes interest payments, of 17.6 billion lira, the data also showed.

In the first seven months of the year, the budget recorded a deficit of 68.7 billion lira. The government’s forecast for the 2019 year-end deficit is 80.6 billion lira.

Albayrak said that the budget deficit-to-GDP ratio will be below 3% this year, despite a slowdown in income. That compares to a previous government forecast of 1.8%.