Turkey: Short-term external debt at $138.7B in 2020

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's short-term external debt stock totaled $138.7 billion as of the end of 2020, official data showed on Thursday.

Maturing within one year or less, the country's external debt stock rose 12.9% from the end of previous year, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said.

The currency breakdown of the debt stock was composed of 43.6% US dollars, 28.3% euros, 13.1% Turkish liras, and 15% other currencies.

Lenders' short-term external debt stock rose 4.1% to $58 billion and other sectors' short-term external debt stock increased 1% to $59.3 billion during the same period.

The rest of the amount -- some $21.4 billion -- belonged to the CBRT.

From the borrowers' side, the short-term debt of the public sector, which consists of state lenders, increased 2.5% to $25.6 billion.

"The short-term debt of private sector increased by 2.5% to $91.7 billion [as of end-2020] compared to the end of 2019," it said.

Short-term foreign exchange (FX) loans that banks received from foreign countries reached $8.9 billion, up 17.3% during the same period.