Turkey: External assets at $228.6B in November

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's external assets amounted to $228.6 billion at November end, down 9.7% from 2019, the Turkish Central Bank announced Monday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents during the same period rose 2.6% to $614.5 billion.

The net international investment position (NIIP) – the difference between external assets and liabilities – was minus $385.9 billion, versus minus $345.8 billion over the same period in 2019.

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 $82.7 billion at the end of November, down 21.8% from the end of last year.

Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $90.7 billion, also indicating a fall of 4.6% in the same period.

"Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investment, recorded $44.2 billion indicating a decrease of 6.9% compared to the end of 2019," the Central Bank said.

On the liabilities side, direct investments – equity capital plus other capital – as of the end of November were $197.1 billion, up 20.5%, including the effects of changes in market value and foreign exchange rates.

Non-residents' foreign exchange deposits were $32.6billion, down 5.4% in November versus the end of 2019.

The Central Bank added that Turkish lira deposits rose 8.8% to $14.8 billion.

It said banks' total external loan stock amounted to $63 billion – down 7.4% – and total external loan stock of the other sectors was $95.2 billion, down 3.2% over the same period.