By Erhan Cihan Unal</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Economists forecast Turkey's current account balance will post $800M deficit for January 2019, according to an Anadolu Agency survey on Friday.</p> <p>A group of 16 economists' estimations ranged in $600 million to $1.2 billion for the first month of 2019.</p> <p>The Central Bank of Turkey will release the balance of payments figures next Monday.</p> <p>In December 2018, the country's current account balance posted some $1.4 billion deficit on a monthly basis, after giving surplus for four consecutive months.</p> <p>In addition to the monthly forecasts, survey showed that 2019-end current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $19.5 billion, varying from $12 billion to $28 billion.</p> <p>Last year, the current account balance posted a deficit of around $27.6 billion, improving from a nearly $47.5 billion deficit in 2017.</p> <p>The figure was the lowest since 2009, while Turkey’s highest annual current account deficit over the last decade was seen in 2011, with $74.4 billion.</p> <p>The country's new economic program, announced in September 2018, targeted a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3.3 percent this year.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>* Writing and contributions by Muhammed Ali Gurtas from Ankara</p> <p>