Turkey's short-term external debt stock slips in Sept.

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

Turkey's short-term external debt stock -- debt that must be paid in the next 12 months -- dropped by 1.5 percent from the end of 2017 to reach $116.8 billion in September, the Turkish Central Bank reported on Friday.

"Specifically, in this period, banks’ short-term external debt stock decreased by 9.9 percent to $60.6 billion and other sectors’ short-term external debt stock decreased by 0.1 percent to $50.7 billion," the bank said in a statement.

The short-term debt of public sector -- mainly composed of public banks -- also fell 3.3 percent compared to the end of 2017 to $21.4 billion in September.

Private sector's short-term foreign debt dropped by 6.2 percent to $89.9 billion during the same period.

Almost half the country's short-term external debt stock was in dollars -- 49.5 percent -- followed by 32.6 percent in euros, 16.4 percent in Turkish liras, and 2.5 percent in other currencies.