Turkey's private sector external debt down in August

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's outstanding short-term foreign private sector debts fell in August, the country's Central Bank (CBRT) said on Wednesday.

Excluding trade credits, the private sector's short-term external loans amounted to $11.8 billion, down $3.6 billion over the end of 2018.

According to the bank, 72.5% of all short-term loans consisted of liabilities of financial institutions.

Some 51% of short-term credits were in the U.S. dollar currency, while the rest of them were in euro (29.1%), Turkish lira (19.5%), and other currencies (0.4%).

On the long-term side, the private sector's overseas loans totaled $196.6 billion as of August, dropping $12.8 billion compared to the end of last year.

Non-financial institution liabilities constituted 53.2% of long-term external loans, the bank said.

The U.S. dollar dominated long-term loans by constituting 60.7% of them, while euro and Turkish followed it with 33.8% and 3.9% respectively.

"Private sector’s total outstanding loans received from abroad based on a remaining maturity basis point out to principal repayments in the amount of $54.3 billion for the next 12 months by the end of August," it added.