Turkey’s external assets at $234B in April

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's external assets totaled $234 billion as of April this year, up 0.5 percent from the end of 2017, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) announced Tuesday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents fell to $665.2 billion, going down 3.8 percent in the same period, the bank said.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the gap between Turkey’s assets abroad and liabilities -- was minus $431.3 billion in April versus minus $458.7 billion at the end of last year.

Showing a snapshot in time, the NIIP -- which can be either positive or negative -- is the value of overseas assets owned by a nation, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners, including overseas assets and liabilities held by a nation’s government, the private sector, and its citizens.

Reserve assets, a sub-item under assets, were $112 billion at the end of April -- up 3.9 percent from the end of 2017 -- while other investments totaled $72.1 billion, down 5.7 percent over the same period.

The data also showed that currency and bank deposits, one of the sub-items of other investments, fell 15 percent to $29.7 billion compared to the end of 2017.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- as of the end of April was $159 billion, a 16 percent drop compared to the end of last year" with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates," the bank said.

Last year the average USD/Turkish lira rate was 3.65, while in the first four months of 2018 one dollar was exchanged for 3.87 Turkish liras on average.

"Total external loan stock of the banks recorded $94.8 billion, increasing by 0.1 percent compared to the end of 2017, and the total external loan stock of the other sectors recorded $112.2 billion, increasing by 3.9 percent," the bank added.