Turkey's external debt stock stands at $438B

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's gross external debt stock stood at $438 billion, more than half of its gross domestic product (GDP), at the end of September, the Turkish Treasury announced Friday.

The net foreign debt of the country reached $282.1 billion as of Sep. 30, accounting for more than 33 percent of GDP, it said.

The loan under the guarantee of the Undersecretariat of the Treasury stood at $13.5 billion during the same period.

The Treasury added that EU-defined general government debt stock was over $235 billion (836 billion liras), or 28.2 percent of GDP at the end of September.

The European Commission has forecasted Turkey's general government gross debt to rise to 28.2 percent of GDP this year from 25.1 percent in 2016.