Turkey's finance minister defines budget performance significant

ANKARA (A.A) - December 15, 2011 - Turkey's finance minister defined on Thursday the 11-month budget performance as significant. Mehmet Simsek said when many developed and emerging countries in the world, particularly European Union (EU) member states, were dealing with public debt problems, Turkey had a significant budget performance. "Budget discipline was maintained also in November, and primary budget expenditures were almost kept constant," Simsek told AA correspondent. Simsek's remarks came after his ministry posted Turkey's budget surplus around 2.1 billion Turkish liras-TL (1.1 billion USD) in November 2011. Earlier on Thursday, the Finance Ministry made public budget performances in November and between January and November 2011. Accordingly, budget expenditures were around 26.8 billion TL (14.2 billion USD) and budget revenues were around 29.032 billion TL (15.4 billion USD) in November. Thus, Turkey posted a budget surplus of 2.1 billion TL (1.1 billion USD). In the first 11 months of 2011, budget expenditures were 271.3 billion TL (143.9 billion USD), and revenues were 272.7 billion TL (144.6 billion USD), making the budget surplus 439 million TL (232.8 million USD). Minister Simsek said the budget posted surplus for seven times since the beginning of the year, and noted that this was the best budget performance since 1983. In 1983, Turkey posted budget surplus for eight months in the first 11 months.  Simsek also said the current figures indicated that Turkey could easily reach its year-end budget target, and even the budget deficit could be below the projected rate of 1.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).