Economy

Turkey: Government gross debt stock totals nearly $200B

Last month, central government debt stock surged 40.6 pct year-on-year, according to official data

20.09.2018 - Update : 20.09.2018
Turkey: Government gross debt stock totals nearly $200B

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The Turkish government’s gross debt stock totaled 1.15 trillion Turkish liras (nearly $200 billion) at the end of August, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Thursday.

Last month, the gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies, and households -- rose 40.6 percent year-on-year, compared to 820.5 billion Turkish liras (some $233 billion) of debt stock in August 2017.

Some 579.4 billion Turkish liras (around $100 billion) or 50.2 percent of the debt was denominated in local currency while the rest of the debt was in foreign currency.

On a monthly basis, the central government debt stock surged 14.3 percent, up from 1 trillion Turkish liras (nearly $212 billion) at the end of July.

The ministry also noted that the stock of Treasury receivables amounted to 20.6 billion Turkish liras (some $3.6 billion) as of Aug. 31.

One U.S. dollar was traded for 5.74 Turkish liras on average this August, while the average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.52 in the same month last year.

As of Dec. 31, 2017, the Turkish government’s gross debt stock amounted to nearly 876.5 billion Turkish liras ($227.6 billion), while the figure was around 760 billion Turkish liras ($217.1 billion) at the end of the previous year.

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.