ANKARA – The government budget saw a significant surplus in June, and for the first half of the year, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in a conference on Wednesday. The surplus shows that the government did not engage in special spending during the election, Simsek said. “The AK Party government maintained fiscal discipline despite the populist conduct of the opposition parties.” The surplus in the June improved to 3.2 billion liras ($1.2 billion) from a 613 million liras ($230 million) deficit in same month last year, Simsek said. The report showed that central government budget, which run a deficit of 3.4 billion liras ($1.28 billion) in first half of last year, posted a surplus amounted to 804 million liras ($303 million) in same period of 2015. Budget expenditures in first half of year rose to 237.5 billion liras ($89.6 billion), indicating a 12.8 percent increase year-on-year while revenue in same period was 236.7 billion liras ($89.3 billion) with an annual 10.7 percent increase. The primary budget surplus rose to 30.5 billion liras ($11.5 billion) in the first half, from 23.1 billion liras ($8.7 billion) a year earlier. “These figures proved how strong our budget performance was,” Simsek said. Negotiations are currently underway to form a coalition government, but Simsek warned that prolonged negotiations, or, should negotiations fail, a move to a snap election would hurt the Turkish economy and make 2015 a lost year for Turkey. “A snap election is a negative scenario. A snap election would mean that the economy would be subject to uncertainty for the whole of 2015. Our party is negotiating carefully to form a coalition with another party,” he said. Simsek said that structural reforms announced by the AK party recently to boost stalling growth and employment require strong political support. Simsek said that a strong coalition government based on shared principles is a must to implement those structural reforms. To achieve growth and budget targets set before the elections might still be possible, Simsek said, but a strong government committed to the structural reform agenda is required. — SG/Agencies
