Turkey: External debt stock at $121.3B in September

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's short-term external debt stock amounted to $121.3 billion as of the end of September, official data showed on Monday.

The country's external debt stock -- maturing within one year or less -- rose 6% in September versus the end of 2018, according to the data of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT).

The bank said the currency breakdown of the debt stock was composed of 50.9% U.S. dollar, 30.4% euro, 13% Turkish lira and 5.7% other currencies.

Banks’ short-term external debt stock posted a decline of 0.4% to $56.9 billion and other sectors’ short-term external debt stock rose 12.8% to $58 billion over the same period.

The rest of the amount -- some $8.2 billion -- belonged to the CBRT.

"From the borrowers side, the short-term debt of public sector, which consists of public banks, posted $22.5 billion.

"And the short-term debt of private sector climbed 7.4% to $92.4 billion compared to the end of 2018," the bank said.

Short-term foreign exchange (FX) loans of the banks received from foreign countries dropped 14.2% to $9.5 billion, the bank data showed.

Non-residents' -- except banking sector -- FX deposits within residents banks saw a rise of 8.6% compared to the end of 2018, reaching $20.6 billion.

Meanwhile, non-resident banks' deposits totaled $13.2 billion, up 1.5% in the same period.