Turkey: Central Bank reserves in January reach $98B

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

The official reserves of the Turkish Central Bank reached $98 billion in January, the bank announced on Thursday.

Total reserve assets saw a rise of 5.4 percent last month, up from $93 billion at the end of 2018.

Foreign currency reserves in January climbed 6.2 percent month-on-month to hit $75.8 billion in convertible foreign currencies.

The bank's gold reserves also climbed 2.7 percent to $20.7 billion including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped.

On a yearly basis, the bank’s official reserves fell 15 percent. The figure was some $115.3 billion at the end of January 2018.

Liability side

The report added that the short-term predetermined net drains of the central government and the bank fell 3.3 percent on a monthly basis, reaching $12.5 billion.

"Of this amount, $8.2 billion belongs to principal repayments and 44.3 billion to interest repayments.

"Regarding the maturity breakdown of the principal and interest payments, $0.4 billion is due in one month, $4.2 billion in 2-3 months, $7.9 billion in 4-12 months," the bank said.

Last month, contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency amounted to $33.2 billion, falling 0.2 percent from December 2018.

According to the bank's definition, contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency consist of "collateral guarantees on debt due within one year" and other contingent liabilities, which are the banking sector’s required reserves in blocked accounts in foreign currency and gold, and the letters of credit items on the Central Bank’s balance sheet.