Turkey's external debt stock stands at $412.4B

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's gross external debt stock stood at $412.4 billion, nearly half of its gross domestic product, at the end of March, the Turkish Treasury announced Friday.

The country's net foreign debt reached $266.7 billion at March's end, accounting for more than 31 percent of of GDP, the Treasury said.

The loan under the guarantee of the Undersecretariat of the Treasury stood at $12.4 billion during the same period.

The Treasury added that EU-defined general government debt stock, which is one of the lowest in Europe, was $220 billion, or 28.9 percent of GDP as of March 31.

The European Commission forecasts Turkey's general government gross debt to decline to 26.5 percent of GDP in the year from 28.3 percent in 2016.