Turkish central bank’s net profit reaches $5B in 2017

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) announced on Tuesday its net profit in 2017 was 18.38 billion Turkish liras ($5.04 billion), soaring by over 92 percent from 9.55 billion liras ($3.15 billion) previous year.

The bank's total assets were 636.97 billion liras ($174.5 billion), including gold, foreign currencies, securities and loans, in the last year, according to the CBRT's 86th accounting period published in the official gazette.

Gold reserves of the bank were 564.65 tons by the end of the last year, worth 88.78 billion liras ($24.32 billion), the bank said.

Turkey is among the top 10 countries with its gold reserves, according to the World Gold Council's data.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 3.65 in 2017 and 3.03 in 2016, according to the CBRT's data.