Turkey: Private sector foreign debt up

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish private sector’s short-term foreign debt rose by $401 million as of end of March over 2017-end, the country's central bank announced Thursday.

The sector's short-term loans -- debt that must be paid in the next 12 months -- reached $18.6 billion as of March, Turkish Central Bank said in a statement.

The sector's long-term foreign debt also increased by $5.5 billion to $226.8 billion during the same period, the bank said.

"As for the sectoral breakdown by the end of March, of the total long-term loans in the amount of $226.8 billion, 50.7 percent consist of liabilities of the financial institutions, whereas 49.3 percent consists of the liabilities of the non-financial institutions," it said.

The Central Bank also revealed that liabilities of financial institutions and non-financial institutions accounted for 78.1 percent and 21.9 percent of the private sector’s short-term foreign debt, respectively.

"From the borrower’s side, regarding long-term loans, banks’ loan liabilities decreased by $98 million whereas bond liabilities amounted to $31.8 billion, increasing by $1.5 billion in comparison to the end of 2017," it added.

Nearly 60 percent of Turkey's private sector long-term debt was in U.S. dollars, with 34.9 percent in euros, 4.6 percent in Turkish liras and 1.7 percent in other currencies.

Almost half of short-term debt was in U.S. dollars, 49.7 percent, followed by 29.3 percent euros, 20.6 percent Turkish liras and 0.4 percent in other currencies.