Turkey’s external assets rise over $233.5B in Oct.

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's external assets rose 8.4 percent in the first 10 months of this year to reach $233.5 billion compared to the end of 2016, Turkey's Central Bank announced on Friday.

The country's liabilities against non-residents also climbed 15.4 percent to $667.6 billion in the same period, bank data showed.

The net international investment position (NIIP) -- the gap between Turkey’s assets abroad and liabilities -- was minus $434.1 billion in October compared to minus $363.1 billion at the end of last year.

Reserve assets, a sub-item under assets, stood at $117.8 billion at the end of October, up 10.8 percent compared to the end of 2016, while other investments totalled $73.1 billion, a rise of 6.8 percent from the end of last year.

Currency and deposits of banks, a sub-item of other investments, came in at $32 billion, an increase of 6.8 percent in the same period, according to the bank.

On the liabilities side, direct investment -- equity capital plus other capital -- at the end of October rose 25.9 percent to $178.3 billion compared to the end of 2016 "with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates," the Central Bank stated.

The bank also noted that banks’ total external loan stock stood at $89.2 billion as of this October, up 1.9 percent from the end of 2016. Other business sectors' total external loans climbed 7.9 percent to $108.4 billion over the same period.