Turkey: Central government gross debt stock at $243B

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish central government's gross debt stock totaled 1.8 trillion Turkish liras (around $243 billion) as of the end of 2020, said new official figures.

The figure was down 3.2% from the same period in the previous year, according to data from the Treasury and Finance Ministry on Wednesday.

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

Some 44% of the debt stock is denominated in Turkey’s local currency, while the rest is in foreign currency, the ministry said.

While 1.06 trillion Turkish liras ($142.5 billion) of the debt was domestic, some 751.8 billion liras ($101 billion) was external, it added.

Data also showed that the stock of Treasury receivables totaled 17.6 billion liras ($2.4 billion) as of Dec. 31.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 7.44 at the end of last year.