Türkiye’s budget deficit nears $24.5 billion in H1
Türkiye’s central government budget recorded a deficit of TL 330.2 billion ($8.2 billion) in June, bringing the cumulative shortfall for the first half of 2025 to TL 980.5 billion, official data showed on Wednesday.
According to figures released by the Treasury and Finance Ministry, budget revenues in June rose by 53.8% year-over-year to TL 909.4 billion, while expenditures increased by 43.1% to TL 1.24 trillion.
Over the January-June period, budget revenues climbed 46.1% annually to reach TL 5.6 trillion, while expenditures rose 43.7% to TL 6.58 trillion.
This means that 44.7% of the TL 14.73 trillion total spending allowance projected in the 2025 central government budget has already been used in the first six months of the year.
Interest payments in June increased by 177.7% compared to the same month last year, reaching almost TL 275.7 billion. For the first half of the year, interest expenses rose by 93.5%, totaling TL 1.1 trillion.
The primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, stood at TL 54.5 billion in June, significantly lower than the TL 176 billion shortfall recorded in the same month last year.
For the first half of the year, Türkiye registered a primary surplus of TL 131 billion.
Primary expenditures for June rose 25.6% year-over-year to TL 963.9 billion, while they grew 36.5% to nearly TL 5.47 billion in the first six months.
The budget deficit surged to a record TL 2.11 trillion in 2024, driven by high inflation and increases in spending due to election-related expenditures and the aftermath of the devastating February 2023 earthquakes.
The government projects a reduction in the gap to around 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2025 from about 4.9% in 2024, citing anticipated decreases in quake-related spending.
Türkiye maintained a budget gap to GDP ratio of around 1% from 2013 to 2016, supported by low public debt. However, the shortfall steadily expanded, reaching 3.5% of GDP in 2020 and ending 2021 at 2.8%. It came in below 1% in 2022, compared to the 3.5% target.
In 2023, escalating quake-related expenditures pushed the deficit to approximately 5.4% of GDP.
