Turkish economy's financial assets reach nearly $3T

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish economy's total financial assets were 11.29 trillion Turkish liras ($2.97 trillion) as of the fourth quarter of 2017, the country's central bank announced on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Turkey's economy's liabilities were 12.97 trillion liras ($3.41 trillion), the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey's (CBRT) "Financial Accounts Report" showed.

This figures created a net liability of 1.68 trillion Turkish liras ($441.8 billion) to the rest of the world, according to the report.

"The largest contribution to the financing of the domestic economy came from the rest of the world and households sectors," the report said.

The Turkish's net debtor position continued as of the quarter, while the most indebted sector was the non-financial corporations' sector, followed by the general government, the report highlighted.

The bank said in the report, an analysis of the ratio of sectors' net financial transactions to the country's GDP reveals that the domestic economy, even though decreasing in the last two quarters, had been a net debtor during the last year.

“A comparison of households' and non-financial corporations' indebtedness ratios with those of several countries demonstrates that Turkey was among the countries with low indebtedness of households and non-financial corporations,” the report said.

The report underlined that, in terms of liabilities and assets sides, non-financial corporations sector was the biggest sector, and it followed by financial corporations.

"As for the financial instrument distribution, loans and other accounts receivable had the largest weight in assets as of the fourth quarter while the loans and the shares and other equity items had the largest weight in liabilities, respectively," the report said.

The U.S. dollar / Turkish lira exchange rate averaged 3.8 during the fourth quarter of 2017.