Turkish Central Bank reserves drop to $114.6B in Feb.

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

The Turkish Central Bank’s official reserve assets dropped to $114.6 billion in February, according to the Bank on Wednesday.

"Official reserve assets recorded $114.6 billion, indicating 0.6 percent decrease compared to the previous month," the Bank said in its international reserves and foreign currency liquidity report.

According to the report, foreign currency reserves also declined 0.6 percent month-on-month to $87.9 billion in February.

The bank's gold reserves -- including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped -- also saw a monthly decrease of 0.8 percent to reach $25.1 billion during the same period.

At the end of February 2017, the bank's total reserves were $107.6 billion, including $89.5 billion in foreign currency along with $16.6 billion in gold reserves.

Over the last decade, the bank's official reserve assets soared by nearly 41 percent, from $76.4 billion at the end of 2007 to last year's close of some $107.6 billion.

Short-term predetermined net drains of the central government and the Central Bank -- foreign currency loans, securities, and foreign exchange deposit accounts of residents abroad within the Bank-- rose 0.8 percent last month from January, reaching $11.8 billion.

"Of this amount, $7.6 billion belongs to principal repayments and $4.2 billion to interest repayments," it added.

The report also showed contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency slightly decreased 0.1 percent to $66.8 billion in February, compared to the previous month.

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 letters of credit items on the bank’s balance sheet.