Turkish government’s gross debt stock at $229B

ANKARA

The gross debt stock of Turkey’s central government stood at 1.6 trillion Turkish liras (around $229 billion) at the end of April, according to official figures released on Wednesday.

The figure was 30% higher than the same month last year, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced.

The gross debt stock includes the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies, and households.

More than half of the debt stock, 836.1 billion liras (about $119 billion), is denominated in foreign currency, the ministry said.

Nearly 879 billion liras ($126 billion) of the debt was domestic and 696.5 billion liras (nearly $98 billion) were external, it added.

The stock of Treasury receivables stood at 18.4 billion liras (nearly $2.6 billion) as of April 30.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.98 at the end of last month.