Turkey: Government gross debt stock up in January

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish government’s gross debt stock stood at 892.6 billion Turkish liras (nearly $236 billion) at the end of January, the Undersecretariat of Treasury announced Tuesday.

Last month, the gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies and households -- was up 11.5 percent year-on-year, compared with 800.5 billion Turkish liras (around $214 billion) of debt stock in January 2017.

Some 539.8 billion Turkish liras (around $142.8 billion), or 60.5 percent of the debt was denominated in local currency while 352.7 billion liras (around $93.3 billion) of debt were in foreign currency.

In January, the central government debt stock increased by 1.8 percent from 876.5 billion Turkish liras (nearly $227.7 billion) at the end of December 2017.

The stock of Treasury receivables stood at 17.5 billion Turkish liras ($4.63 billion) at the end of January.

Local governments with a stock of 11.5 billion liras ($3.04 billion) hold the largest share of Treasury receivables, the Undersecretariat reported, adding that the total amount of receivables collected by the Treasury stood at 192 million liras (around $51 million) by the end of January.

According to the Turkish Central Bank, the average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.78 this January while one dollar was traded for 3.74 Turkish liras on average the same month last year.