Turkey's state minister for economy said on Thursday that rise in current deficit was due to some independent developments.

Ali Babacan said the rise in the current (accounts) deficit in March was due to one or two independent developments.

"It does not point to a deterioration in general trend," Babacan told a televised interview.

Babacan's remarks came after the Central Bank of Turkey made public the current account deficit on Wednesday.

Accordingly, current account deficit was up 128.1 percent year-on-year to 9.7 billion in March 2011.

Current account deficit was 22.1 billion USD in the first quarter of 2011. Current account deficit was 10.2 billion USD in the same period of 2010.

Babacan said the figures were "a bit higher than projections" because some international companies took a part of the profit they earned in March outside Turkey.

The minister forecast that the year-end current deficit would be a bit higher than that in 2010.

Babacan also said the current deficit should occur due to more direct investments, and should be financed with longer capital inflows, and structural reforms should be made for a long-term solution.

AA