Turkey: External assets hit $233.8B in March

ANKARA

Turkey's external assets hit $233.8 billion at the end of March, down 7.3% from the end of 2019, the Turkish Central Bank announced Thursday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also fell 9.2% to hit $548.5 billion during the same period.

"The net IIP [international investment position], defined as the difference between Turkey’s external assets and liabilities, posted minus 314.7 billion at the end of March, in comparison to minus $351.9 billion observed at the end of 2019," the bank said.

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, were $92.1 billion at the end of March, down 12.8% from the end of last year.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $90.5 billion, also indicating a 5.6% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $43.8 billion, indicating a decrease of 7.8% 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 March was $133.3 billion.

The figure was down 19.8% 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 U.S. dollar/Turkish lira rate was around 5.68, while this March one dollar was exchanged for 6.31 liras on average.

"Foreign exchange deposits of non-residents held within the resident banks recorded $32.4 billion at the end of March 2020, reflecting a decrease of 6.9% compared to the end of 2019," the bank said.

It added that Turkish lira deposits rose 7.4% to $14.6 billion.

The Central Bank said that the total external loan stock of the banks amounted to $65.3 billion – down 2.3% – and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $96.5 billion, down 1.8% in the same period.