Turkish Lira Advances Against Dollar as Budget Surplus Doubles

By Ewa Krukowska

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Turkish lira rose against the dollar as a government report showed the budget surplus before interest payments almost doubled in August.

The lira advanced 0.1 percent to 1.2358 per dollar by 11:05 a.m. in Istanbul. The currency has lost almost 4 percent against the U.S. currency this month as investors sold higher-yielding emerging-market currencies because of concern that the economic slowdown may deepen.

The ex-interest budget surplus expanded to 14.2 billion liras ($11.5 billion) in August, from 7.8 billion liras a year ago, the finance ministry said today. The overall budget surplus including debt costs increased 70 percent to 6 billion liras, the state statistics office in Ankara said earlier today.

Turkey's gross domestic product growth eased to 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the slowest in six years, from a revised 6.7 percent in the previous quarter, it said.

The Polish zloty was little changed at 3.4683 against the euro by 10:05 a.m. in Warsaw.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Warsaw at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net