Turkey Budget Deficit Largest in 7 Months
2026-08-17 09:00
By
Erika Ordonez
1 min. read
Turkey’s central government budget posted a deficit of TRY 378.1 billion in July 2026, widening sharply from TRY 23.9 billion in the same month a year earlier.
This marked the largest budget deficit since December 2025, as total expenditures surged 59.8% to TRY 1.8 trillion, driven by higher spending on current transfers (+57.2%), personnel costs (+43.3%), social security contributions (+48.2%), purchases of goods and services, and capital expenditure.
Non-interest expenditures increased 48.4% to TRY 1.5 trillion, while interest payments climbed 142.8% to TRY 326.8 billion.
Meanwhile, revenues jumped 28.8% year-on-year to TRY 1.4 trillion, fueled by a 30.0% increase in tax collections to TRY 1.2 trillion, reflecting robust growth in income tax, domestic VAT, import VAT, special consumption tax, banking and insurance taxes, and customs-related revenues.
As a result, the primary balance swung to a deficit of TRY 51.3 billion from a surplus of TRY 110.7 billion a year earlier.