Turkish private sector short-term foreign debt rises

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish private sector’s outstanding short-term debt rose in September, but long-term debt shrank, the country's central bank said on Monday.

The private sector's short-term overseas loans, excluding trade credits, were $8.9 billion in September, up by $179 million compared to the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, liabilities of financial institutions were 84.8% of all short-term loans, according to the bank.

A major chunk of the short-term credit, 43.3 %, was in US dollars while the rest were in euros (37.4%), Turkish liras (16.1%) and other currencies (3.2%).

On the long-term side, the private sector's external loans totaled $161 billion as of September, down $18.2 billion against the end of 2019.

Non-financial institution liabilities constituted 56.2 % of long-term external loans.

Most of the long-term loans, 62.5%, were in US dollars, followed by the euro and Turkish lira at 33.7% and 2.1 %, respectively.

The bank added that the remaining maturity of the private sector's total outstanding loans received from abroad as of the end of September indicated principal repayments of $42.3 billion over the next 12 months.