<p>UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS AND COMMENTS FROM CENTRAL BANK</p> <p>By Muhammed Ali Gurtas<br> </p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's current account balance posted a surplus in October for the third month in a row, the country’s central bank announced on Monday.<br> </p> <p>In October, the country's current account surplus amounted to $2.77 billion, improving from a deficit of $3.83 billion in the same month last year, according to the Turkish Central Bank’s balance of payments report.</p> <p>In August, the balance posted a surplus for the first time over the past three years with a $2.59-billion surplus, and then showed a 1.83-billion surplus in September.</p> <p>Excluding gold and energy, current account balance indicated some $6.17 billion surplus in October, versus $466 million deficit recorded in the same month of 2017.</p> <p>"The current account surplus is mainly attributable to the goods item indicating $799 million surplus in contrast to $5.64 billion deficit observed in the same month of the previous year.</p> <p>"As well as $447 million increase in net inflows in the services item realizing $3.03 billion," the central bank said.</p> <p>It stated that travel item under services recorded a net inflow of nearly $2.65 billion, going up $501 million year-on-year.</p> <p>The bank also said that the 12-month rolling deficit fell to $39.4 billion as of October.</p> <p>In 2017, Turkey's annual current account deficit was some $47.5 billion — around 5.6 percent of the country's GDP. Over the last two decades, the country's highest annual current account deficit was seen in 2011 with $74.4 billion.</p> <p>The country's new economic program, announced in September, is targeting a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.7 percent this year, 3.3 percent next year, 2.7 percent in 2020, and 2.6 percent in 2021.</p>
