Turkey: External assets at $227.4B in Aug

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's external assets were $227.4 billion at the end of August, down 10.2% from the end of last year, the Turkish Central Bank announced Monday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also fell 1% to hit $592.2 billion during the same period.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the difference between external assets and liabilities -- was minus $364.8 billion at the end of August 2020, versus minus $344.7 billion at the end of 2019.

Showing 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 $83.8 billion at the end of August, down 20.8% from the end of December.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $89.8 billion, also indicating a fall of 5.6% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $48.2 billion indicating an increase of 1.5% compared to the end of 2019," the bank noted.

On the liabilities side, direct investments -- equity capital plus other capital -- as of the end of August were $182.8 billion.

The figure was down 11.8% from the end of last year "with the contribution of the changes in the 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 August one dollar was exchanged for 7.32 liras.

Non-residents' foreign exchange deposits were $33.9 billion, down 2.4%, in August versus the end of December.

It added that Turkish lira deposits rose 20.1% to $16.4 billion.

The Central Bank said that the total external loan stock of the banks amounted to $63.6 billion -- down 6.3% -- and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $94.1billion, down 3% over the same period.