Turkey’s Finance Minister: “Budget gave a surplus of 6.4 billion TL in May”

Finance Minister Naci Agbal said that the central government budget provided a deficit of 6.4 billion Turkish Liras in May and 11.5 billion liras in January-May period adding this had been a significant influence of incentives made to support economic growth.

Ağbal commented on the budget implementation results for May and January-May period of this year. The minister explained the central government budget had given a surplus of 6.4 billion liras in May and said that the high rate of increase in tax revenues had contributed to the improvement in the budget last month.

Ağbal stated that the tax revenues in May increased by 20.3 percent due to the high rate of increase in VAT for imports, income and corporate tax as well as the “Law on the Restructuring of Certain Receivables” (no 6736).

AGBAL said in the January-May period, the central government budget had given a deficit of 11.5 billion liras, and added that this had been mainly due to the incentives to support economic growth. He went on to say “In the first quarter of the year, economic growth reached 5 percent which shows that economic growth in 2017 can be above our targets in the Medium Term Program. The recovery of economic will certainly have a positive impact on tax revenues. What is essential is we need to maintain fiscal discipline. We will continue to implement economic policies without compromising on this issue.”