Turkish central government debt stock hits $223B at end-Feb

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) — The Turkish central government's gross debt stock totaled 4.2 trillion liras ($223 billion) at the end of February, according to official figures released on Monday.

The figure, which includes the outstanding debt of public bodies, the Central Bank, private companies, and households, surged nearly 43% year-on-year in February, the Treasury and Finance Ministry data showed.

Some 26% of the debt stock is denominated in Turkish liras, while the rest is in foreign currency.

While 2 trillion liras ($107 billion) of the debt was domestic, some 2.2 trillion liras ($116 billion) of it was external.

As of Feb. 28, the stock of Treasury receivables totaled 20.5 billion liras ($1.1 billion).

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 18.89 at the end of the February.