Turkey: Government gross debt stock up in March

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish government’s gross debt stock stood at 913.1 billion Turkish liras (nearly $234.7 billion) at the end of March, the Undersecretariat of Treasury announced on Friday.

Last month, the gross debt stock -- the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies and households -- was up nearly 15 percent year-on-year, compared with 793.9 billion Turkish liras (around $216.3 billion) of debt stock in March 2017.

Some 550.4 billion Turkish liras (around $141.5 billion), or 60.3 percent of the debt was denominated in local currency while 362.7 billion liras (around $93.2 billion) of debt were in foreign currency.

In March, the central government debt stock increased by 1.82 percent from 896.8 billion Turkish liras (nearly $237.2 billion) at the end of February.

The stock of Treasury receivables stood at 17.4 billion Turkish liras (some $4.47 billion) at the end of March.

Local governments with a stock of 11.3 billion liras (nearly $2.9 billion) hold the largest share of Treasury receivables, the Undersecretariat reported, adding that the total amount of receivables collected by the Treasury stood at 629.6 million liras (around $161.8 million) by the end of March.

According to the Turkish Central Bank, the average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.89 this March while one dollar was traded for 3.67 Turkish liras on average the same month last year.