Turkish Treasury posts $2.7B cash deficit in March

By Gokhan Ergocun </p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – The Turkish Treasury's cash balance posted a deficit of 14.95 billion Turkish liras ($2.69 billion) in March, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said on Friday. </p> <p>Last month, the Treasury's cash revenues amounted 68.57 billion Turkish liras (nearly $11.2 billion), up 11.5 percent on a yearly basis. </p> <p>Its expenditures — including interest payments of 11.2 billion Turkish liras ($2 billion) — also rose 22.2 percent to 83.52 billion Turkish liras ($15 billion). </p> <p>In March, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures were 72.3 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion).</p> <p>During the first quarter of this year — January to March — the country's revenues and expenditures reached 225.3 billion Turkish liras ($40.6 billion) and 263.3 billion Turkish liras ($47.4 billion), respectively.</p> <p>The country's cash balance deficit was 37.83 billion Turkish liras ($6.8 billion) during the first three months of the current year.</p> <p>The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.55 as of the end of last month.