Turkey: External assets at $225B in September

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's external assets amounted to $225 billion as of Sept. 31, down 11.2% from the end of last year, the Turkish Central Bank announced Wednesday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also fell 0.9%, down to $593.5 billion during the same period.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the difference between external assets and liabilities -- was minus $368.5 billion, versus minus $345.4 billion over the same period.

As a snapshot in time, the NIIP, which can be either positive or negative, is the value of overseas assets owned by a nation, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners, including overseas assets and liabilities held by a nation's government, the private sector, and its citizens.

Reserve assets, a sub-item under assets, were $79.7 billion at the end of September, down 24.6% from the end of last year.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $90.8 billion, also indicating a fall of 4.5% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $48 billion indicating an increase of 1.1% compared to the end of 2019," said the Central Bank.

On the liabilities side, direct investments -- equity capital plus other capital -- as of the end of September were $185.4 billion, marking a 13.4% increase, including the effects of changes in market value and foreign exchange rates.

At the end of 2019, the US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.95, while at the end of September one dollar was exchanged for 7.7662 liras.

Non-residents' foreign exchange deposits were $33 billion, down 5.1% in September versus the end of 2019.

The Central Bank added that Turkish lira deposits increased by 8.7% to $14.8 billion.

It said banks' total external loan stock amounted to $64 billion -- down 6.6% -- and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $93 billion, down 4.2% over the same period.