Turkey: Current account balance sees $273M gap

ISTANBUL

Turkey's current account balance posted a deficit of $273 million in October, bringing 12-month rolling deficit to $33.79 billion, the Turkish Central Bank revealed on Friday.

The figure was a $2.74-billion surplus in the same month last year, while it was down from $1.8 billion deficit previous month, the bank said.

An Anadolu Agency survey on Wednesday showed that economists expected a deficit of $200 million.

A group of 23 economists' estimates for the month ranged between a deficit of $1.2 billion and a surplus of $300 million.

The survey showed the end-2020 current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $34.5 billion.

The bank said: "This development is mainly driven by the net outflow of $1.27 billion in the goods item, increasing by $514 million.

Also, "the net inflow of $1.6 billion in services item decreased by $2.89 billion compared to the same month of the previous year."

The bank said gold and energy excluded current account amounted to $2.93 billion surplus, compared to $6.53 billion surplus in October 2019.

Travel item under services saw a net inflow of $1.33 billion, down $1.93 billion year-on-year.