Turkish Central Bank reserves top $115B in January

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

The Turkish Central Bank’s total reserves reached $115.29 billion as of the end of January, the bank announced Wednesday.

Official reserve assets rose 7.1 percent, compared to $107.63 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to the bank's international reserves and foreign currency liquidity report.

In January, foreign currency reserves -- in convertible foreign currencies -- rose to $88.44 billion, a monthly increase of 7.1 percent.

As another sub-item of official reserve assets, gold reserves -- including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped -- climbed 7.4 percent last month to reach $25.28 billion, compared to the previous month.

At the end of January 2017, the bank's total reserves were $106.45 billion, including $89.05 billion in foreign currency along with $15.93 billion in gold reserves.

Over the past 10 years, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) official reserve assets rose nearly 61.5 percent, from $71.4 billion in January 2009 to $115.29 billion in January 2018.

In mid-December 2013, the bank's total reserves saw a historic high of nearly $136 billion, including some $21 billion in gold reserves.

Liability side

Meanwhile, the bank noted that short-term predetermined net drains of the central government and the CBRT -- foreign currency loans, securities, and foreign exchange deposit accounts of residents abroad within the CBRT -- climbed 0.8 percent in January from the previous month, realizing at $11.77 billion.

Of this amount, $7.6 billion belongs to principal repayments and $4.16 billion to interest repayments, it added.

The CBRT report also said contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency rose 8.5 percent to $66.85 billion last month, compared to December 2017.

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 CBRT’s balance sheet.