Turkey’s short-term foreign debt stock nearly at $145B in May

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's short-term external debt stock reached $144.9 billion as of end-May, the country’s Central Bank announced on Wednesday.

The amount of debt that must be paid over the next 12 months rose 4.6% compared to the end of last year, according to a Central Bank statement.

The short-term external debt stock of lenders in the same period also climbed 2.1% to $59.2 billion, while the figure for other sectors rose 5% to $62.1 billion.

The rest of the amount – some $23.6 billion – belonged to the Central Bank.

Short-term forex loans of banks received from abroad slipped 3.4% to $8.6 billion, it noted.

As of end-May, some 45.3% of the debt stock was in US dollars, 27.3% in euros, 12.2% in Turkish liras, and 15.2% in other currencies.

From the borrowers' side, the short-term debt of the public sector, which consists of state lenders, climbed 4.2% to $26.7 billion, while the private sector registered $94.5 billion of debt, down 3.4%, during the same period.​​​​​​​