Turkey’s external assets at over $225B in December 2017

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's external assets rose by 5.8 percent as of December last year to stand at $227.9 billion compared with the end of 2016, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey announced on Wednesday.

As of the end of last year, the country's liabilities against non-residents rose by 17.1 percent to reach $681.2 billion, the bank said.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the gap between Turkey’s assets abroad and liabilities -- amounted to minus $453.3 billion in December last year while it was minus $366.2 billion at the end of the previous year.

Showing at a point in time, the NIIP -- may either be 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 $107.7 billion at the end of December -- up 1.3 percent from the end of 2016 -- while other investments were recorded at $77 billion, increasing 12.6 percent over the same period.

The Central Bank data also showed that currency and bank deposits, one of the sub-items of other investments, rose by 17.3 percent to $34.9 billion compared with the end of 2016.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- as of the end of 2017 recorded $180.3 billion, marking a 26.2 percent increase compared with the end of 2016 "with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates," the bank said.

The average USD/TRY rate was 3.65 last year while one dollar was exchanged for 3.03 Turkish liras on average in 2016.

Total external loan stock of the banks amounted to $92.5 billion as of December 2017, up 5.6 percent from the figure at the end of the previous year, "while total external loan stock of the other sectors recorded $109.1 billion increasing by 10.4 percent," the Central Bank added.