Turkey’s current account deficit shrinks, but budget gap widens
Turkey’s chronic current account deficit has fallen to a 16-year low, but this ostensible improvement is hardly the outcome or harbinger of sound economic headway.
For the first time in a long time, Turkey’s current account has shown a surplus on a monthly basis, bringing the 12-month current account gap to a 16-year low, according to Central Bank data released July 11. With the $151 million surplus in May, the current account deficit — or foreign-currency deficit — shrank to $2.4 billion year-on-year, heralding that a chronic problem of the Turkish economy was at least temporarily curtailed.
Only three days later, however, fresh economic data showed another problem, a sharp increase in the central government budget deficit. The deficit stood at 78.6 billion Turkish liras ($13.8 billion) in the first half of the year, widening nearly 72% from 46 billion liras in the same period last year.
Deficits in the current account and central government budget are among the basic economic indicators of a country. When both gaps reach significant levels, economists speak of a “twin deficit,” which means the country is in a deep trouble.
The current account deficit befalls countries when their foreign-currency spending, which goes mostly to imports, exceeds significantly their foreign-currency revenues, derived mostly from exports and the tourism industry. For emerging economies such as Turkey, current account deficits are considered a chronic problem. Major countries plagued by current account gaps in times of economic growth include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia and South Africa.
