Turkish Central Bank reserves at $93B as of end-2018

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey's (CBRT) official reserves reached $93 billion as of the end of last year, the bank said on Monday.

Official reserve assets climbed 2.2 percent in December 2018, compared to the previous month.

The bank's foreign currency reserves totaled $71.4 billion in convertible foreign currencies, up 1.7 percent during the same period.

Gold reserves rose 4.3 percent to $20.1 billion including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped.

On a yearly basis, official reserves of the bank dropped nearly 14 percent, down from $107.7 billion at the end of 2017.

"Short-term predetermined net drains of the Central Government and the CBRT [foreign currency loans, securities, foreign exchange deposit accounts of foreign banks and residents abroad in the CBRT] increased by 0.2 percent compared to the previous month, realizing as $13 billion," it said.

Some $8.7 billion of this amount belonged to principal repayments and $4.3 billion to interest repayments.

"Regarding the maturity breakdown of the principal and interest payments, $800 million is due in one month, $2.7 billion in 2-3 months, $9.5 billion in 4-12 months," it added.

Contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency rose 1.8 percent month-on-month to $31.9 billion in December 2018.

According to the bank's definition, the contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency consist of “collateral guarantees on debt due within one year” and “other contingent liabilities," which are the banking sector’s required reserves in blocked accounts in foreign currency and gold, and the letters of credit items on the Central Bank’s balance sheet.