Turkey's gross debt stock stands at $238.5B in August

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish government’s gross debt stock stood at 820.5 billion Turkish liras (approximately $238.5 billion) at the end of August, the Undersecretariat of Treasury announced Wednesday.

Last month, the gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies and households -- was up 15.4 percent year-on-year, compared with 710.9 billion Turkish liras (around $241 billion) of debt stock in August 2016.

According to the Turkish Central Bank, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.44 at the end of August while one dollar was traded for 2.95 Turkish liras on Aug. 31, 2016.

Some 513.3 billion Turkish liras (around $149.2 billion), or 62.5 percent of the debt was denominated in liras while 307.2 billion liras (around $89.3 billion) of debt were in foreign currency.

In August, the central government debt stock increased by 0.42 percent from 817.1 billion Turkish liras (nearly $231.5 billion) at the end of July this year.

The stock of Treasury receivables, on the other hand, stood at 17.6 billion Turkish liras (around $5.12 billion) at the end of August, down from 17.8 billion liras (some $5.04 billion) in the previous month.

The Undersecretariat reported that receivables from local governments held the largest share last month with a stock of 12 billion liras (nearly $3.49 billion), while the total amount of receivables collected by the Treasury stood at 1.2 billion liras (around $349 million).