Turkey's parliament adopts 2015 budget

Budget spending is estimated at 520.4 billion Turkish lira ($224.6 billion/184.3 billion euro) for 2015, while budget income is estimated at 499.5 billion lira, Ak Parti said in a statement last week.

The largest share of the budget was allocated to the health and education ministries, with each receiving $38 billion. By comparison, the education ministry received $2.4 billion and the ministry of health received $4.5 billion in 2014.

According to budget figures, exports will came in at 391 billion lira in 2015 and imports will reach 583 billion lira.

The government expects Turkey’s budget deficit to stand at 1.4% of GDP in 2014 and targets a deficit of 1.1% in 2015, Turkey’s deputy prime minister Ali Babacan said in a statement commenting on the budget figures for 2015. Babacan said also that Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be 4.0% in 2015, while the consumer price index (CPI) is seen at 6.3%. The current account deficit is expected to decline to 5.0% of GDP in 2014, and even to 4.0% if oil prices remain low, from 7.9% of GDP in 2013.

(1 euro = 2.8229 Turkish lira)