Turkey's gross debt climbs to $242.5B in September

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The Turkish government’s gross debt stock climbed to 842.5 billion Turkish liras (nearly $242.5 billion) as of Sept. 30 this year, the Treasury announced Friday.

In September, the central government's gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies and households -- rose 2.68 percent on a monthly basis, compared with 820.5 billion Turkish liras (approximately $238.5 billion) debt stock in August.

The USD/TRY rate was 3.47 on average last month, while the average exchange rate was 3.51 in August this year.

Most of the debt was denominated in local currency, amounting to 62 percent, while the rest of debt was denominated in foreign currency, the Treasury said.

Meanwhile, the Treasury's receivables stock stood at 17.5 billion Turkish liras (some $5.03 billion) at the end of September, compared with 17.6 billion Turkish liras (around $5.12 billion) in August.

The Treasury added that the major part of receivables was recorded by local governments -- with a stock of 12 billion liras (nearly $3.45 billion) -- while the Treasury Undersecretariat collected 1.5 billion liras (around $430 million) of receivables as of Sept. 30, 2017.