External loan burden on Turkish private sector slips

ANKARA

The Turkish private sector’s outstanding loans received from abroad decreased in January from end-2019, the country's Central Bank said Monday.

The sector's long-term debts totaled $189.8 billion as of January, a fall of $1.8 billion from the end of last year, the bank said in a statement.

It noted that 46.1% of the long-term debts in the month were held by financial institutions.

Some 61.7% of Turkish private sector long-term debt was in U.S. dollars, with 32.9% in euros, 3.7% in Turkish liras, and 1.7% in other currencies.

The sector's short-term loans -- debt that must be paid in the next 12 months -- also went down $1.1 billion to $8.4 billion in the same period.

Financial institutions held 77.9% of the short-term loans, while 22.1% consisted of liabilities of non-financial institutions.

"Regarding the currency composition of the total short-term loans, 44.9% consists of U.S. dollars, 32% consists of euros, 22.4% consists of Turkish liras and 0.7% consist of other currencies," it added.