Turkey's gross debt climbs to $231.3B in 2017

Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

The Turkish government’s gross debt stock climbed to 876.5 billion Turkish liras (nearly $231.3 billion) at the end of 2017, the Treasury announced Monday.

As of Dec. 31, the central government's gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies and households -- was up 15.4 percent year-on-year, compared with 759.6 billion Turkish liras (around $215.3 billion) in December 2016.

The USD/TRY rate was 3.6466 on average last year, while one dollar was traded for 3.79 Turkish liras on December 29, 2017.

Some 535.4 billion Turkish liras (around $142.3 billion), or 61 percent, of the debt was denominated in liras while 341 billion liras (almost $90 billion) were in foreign currency.

The stock of Treasury receivables stood at 17.5 billion Turkish liras (around $4.62 billion) at the end of last year.

The Undersecretariat of Treasury reported that receivables from local governments constituted the largest share last month with a stock of 11.6 billion liras (nearly $3.06 billion), while the total amount of receivables collected by the Treasury stood at 2.3 billion liras (around $606 million).