Turkey’s external assets rise over $220B in June

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA

Turkey's external assets rose by 3.8 percent in the first half of this year to reach $223.7 billion compared with the end of 2016, Turkey's Central Bank announced on Thursday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also increased by 13.1 percent to $647.8 billion in the same period, bank data revealed.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the gap between Turkey’s assets abroad and liabilities -- was minus-$424.2 billion in June compared to minus-$357.3 billion at the end of last year.

Reserve assets, a sub-item under assets, stood at $108.7 billion at the end of June, marking an increase of 2.3 percent compared with the end of 2016, while other investments were recorded at $72.4 billion, up 5.7 percent from the end of last year.

Currency and deposits of banks, a sub-item of other investments, recorded at $32.2 billion, indicating an increase of eight percent in the same period, according to the Central Bank.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- at the end of June rose by 22.8 percent to $167.8 billion compared to the end of 2016 "with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates", the Central Bank stated.

One U.S. dollar traded for 3.02 Turkish liras on average last year. In the first six months of 2017, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.64 on average.

The Central Bank also noted that banks’ total external loan stock stood at $87.5 billion as of June this year, up by 0.1 percent from the end of 2016. Other business sectors' total external loans climbed by 4.6 percent to $104.5 billion over the same period.