Turkey: Private sector external loans fall in February

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish private sector’s outstanding loans received from abroad slipped in February from the end of 2018, the Central Bank of Turkey announced Tuesday.

The sector's long-term debts reached to $209.5 billion as of February, down $763 million from the end of last year, the bank said in a statement.

Excluding trade credits, sector's short-term loans -- debt that must be paid in the next 12 months -- went down $2.3 billion to $13.1 billion during the same period.

Financial institutions constituted 72.9% of the short term loans, the report showed.

"As for the sectoral breakdown by the end of February, of the total long-term loans in the amount of $209.5 billion, 48.7% consists of liabilities of the financial institutions, whereas 51.3% consists of the liabilities of the non-financial institutions," it said.

Nearly 60 percent of Turkey's private sector long-term debt was in U.S. dollars, with 34.4 percent in euros, 4.4 percent in Turkish liras, and 1.4 percent in other currencies.