Turkey: External assets increase in September

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's external assets hit $247.5 billion as of this September, up 8% from 2018-end, the Turkish Central Bank revealed on Tuesday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents slipped 0.2% to $599.2 billion during the same period, the bank said.

The figure means improvement of $19.4 billion in the country's net international investment position (NIIP).

"The NIIP, the difference between Turkey’s external assets and liabilities, posted minus $351.6 billion at the end of September 2019, in comparison to minus $371 billion at the end of 2018," the bank said.

The NIIP 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 amounted to $101.1 billion, rising 8.7%, while other investment totaled at $96.6 billion, up 8,8% during the same period.

The banks' currency and deposits -- one of the sub-items of other investment -- climbed 14.3% to $51.1 billion in as of this September compared to the end of last year.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- rose to $157.4 billion at the end of previous month, indicating a rise of 5.9% from the end of 2018 with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates, the Central Bank noted.

In January-September this year, the average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.64, while last year one dollar was exchanged for 4.42 Turkish liras on average.

It added that banks' external loan stock totaled $71 billion in the month, falling 13% from the end of 2018, and the total external loan stock of other sectors totaled $101.3 billion, decreasing 5%.

In the third quarter this year, the NIIP stood at minus $351.6 billion, while it was minus $338.3 billion in same quarter of 2018.

Turkey's foreign assets reached $247.5 billion and liabilities amounted to $599.2 billion from June to September.