Turkey: External assets at $227.1B in October

ANKARA

Turkey's external assets amounted to $227.1 billion as of Oct. 31, down 10.4% from the end of last year, the Turkish Central Bank announced Friday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents during the same period also fell 3.5% to $578.3 billion.

The net international investment position (NIIP) – the difference between external assets and liabilities – was minus $351.2 billion, versus minus $345.9 billion over the same period last year.

As 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 $84.5 billion at the end of October, down 20% from the end of last year.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $87.7 billion, also indicating a fall of 7.7% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investments, recorded $42.5 billion, indicating a decrease of 10.4% compared to the end of 2019," said the Central Bank.

On the liabilities side, direct investments – equity capital plus other capital – as of the end of October were $170.7 billion, up 4.4%, including the effects of changes in market value and foreign exchange rates.

Non-residents' foreign exchange deposits were $33.9 billion, down 2.6% in October versus the end of 2019.

The Central Bank added that Turkish lira deposits rose 0.6% to $13.7 billion.

It said banks' total external loan stock amounted to $62 billion – down 8.6% – and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $94.2 billion, down 4.1% over the same period.