Turkey's external assets reach $227.3B in June

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's external assets reached $227.3 billion at the end of this June, decreasing 10.3% from end-2019, the Turkish Central Bank said Friday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also posted a 4.7% decline to $568.9 billion in the same period.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the difference between external assets and liabilities -- was minus $341.5 billion as of this June, bettering from $343.5 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, recorded $86.3 billion, falling 18.3% during the same period.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, decreased 7.7% to $87.7 billion in June.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $47.8 billion indicating an increase of 0.7% compared to the end of 2019," the bank noted.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- as of the end of June was $162.6 billion, climbing 1.6% compared to the end of last year "with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates."

In 2019, the average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.68, as one dollar was exchanged for 6.81 Turkish liras on average this June.

June figure showed that FX deposits of non-residents held within the resident banks stood at $31.1 billion, a decline of 10.6% compared to the end of 2019.

"And Turkish lira deposits increased by 15.3%, recording $15.7 billion," the bank said.

The Central Bank said that total external loan stock of the banks amounted to $63.1 billion -- down 6% -- and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $93.3 billion, down 3.6% in the same period.