Turkey: External assets at $227.3B in May

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's external assets were $227.3 billion at the end of May, down 10.3% from the end of the last year, the Turkish Central Bank announced Tuesday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also fell 5.8% to hit $562.1 billion during the same period.

The net international investment position (IIP) – the difference between external assets and liabilities – was minus $334.8 billion at the end of May 2020, versus $343.7 billion at the end of 2019.

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 $90.9 billion at the end of May, down 10.4% from the end of December.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $83.4 billion, also indicating a fall of 12.3% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $44.8 billion, indicating a decrease of 5.6% compared to the end of 2019," the bank noted.

On the liabilities side, direct investments – equity capital plus other capital – as of the end of May were $155.4 billion.

The figure was down 2.9% from the end of last year "with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates."

At the end of 2019, the US dollar/Turkish lira rate was 5.95, while at the end of May one dollar was exchanged for 6.8 liras.

Non-residents' foreign exchange deposits were $32.2 billion, down 7.3%, in May versus the end of December.

It added that Turkish lira deposits rose 13.2% to $15.4 billion.

The Central Bank said that the total external loan stock of the banks amounted to $62.8 billion – down 6.5% – and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $93.6 billion, down 3.5% over the same period.