Turkish Finance Minister Outlines 2015 Draft Budget Law

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek outlined the draft budget law for 2015 in a presentation Thursday.



"Strong and balanced public finance affirmatively differentiates Turkey from other countries in a period when the public deficits and debt of other countries are high, and their primary budget balances are in deficit," Simsek said.



Simsek explained that the rate of gross national debt for Turkey in 2014, was less than one-third of the average of nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, one-third of the average of Eurozone countries. 



Praising the reduction in interest expense in the budget, Simsek said that the 2014 interest expense was reduced to 11.2 percent, down from 43.3 percent in 2002, the lowest level of the last 30 years. 



Simsek also said tax income contribution to interest payments had dropped to 14.3 percent in 2014 from 85.7 percent in 2002. 



Simsek noted that Turkey had improved its position on the Financial Development Index -- created by the World Economic Forum, the index measures and analyses the factors enabling the development of financial systems among different economies. Turkey moved up to 42 in 2012 from 44 in 2009 out of 55 countries. The government expects Turkey to rank among the first 30 countries in 2018, he added.    



According to International Tax Competitiveness Index, which measures tax competition among countries, Turkey is now the 9th most competitive country out of 34 others in 2014, Simsek said. 



Debate on Turkey's 2015 budget started off Thursday with the minister's budget submission in the Turkish parliament's Planning and Budget Commission, and the commission's sessions will continue until November 25. 



The budget will be debated in the general assembly in the first week of December.



Turkey will allocate 87.5 billion Turkish liras ($39.1 billion) for education, which is the highest amount ever. The largest part of Turkey's 2015 budget has been reserved for education as it was in that of the previous year.



Total budget spending will be 520.4 billion Turkish liras ($232.5 billion), income will reach 499.5 billion Turkish liras ($223.3 billion) and the budget deficit will hit 21 billion Turkish liras ($9.4 billion).



The growth rate of Turkey's GDP is expected to be about four percent in 2015, while the Consumer Price Index -a measure of inflation -- will reach 6.3 percent by the end of 2015.Turkish exports are forecast to reach 391 billion Turkish liras ($174.7 billion) and imports will total 583 billion Turkish liras ($260.5 billion) in 2015, according to the budget estimates.



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