Turkish Central Bank reserves to surpass $115B: President

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Central Bank's reserves will surpass $115 billion when pending transactions are completed, Turkey's president said on Tuesday.

The bank's official reserves so far stand at $109 billion, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the meeting of Justice and Development (AK) Party provincial heads in the capital Ankara.

According to the latest data, Turkish Central Bank's official reserves amounted to $97.7 billion as of the end of June.

Touching on the country's current account balance, Erdogan said: “In 2019 we managed to shift the current account deficit, which for years was our economy's biggest problem, into a surplus. We will see the same table again soon."

The country's current account gap stood at $1.127 billion in June, narrowing for the fourth consecutive month, according to Central Bank data.

Soon, after a fall especially due to fluctuations in exchange rates, Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) will surpass over a trillion dollars, the president said.

Turkey's GDP at current prices was at 5.1 trillion Turkish liras (some $717.1 billion) in 2020, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.