Turkish private sector's loans from abroad rise

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish private sector's outstanding long-term loans from abroad rose $3.6 billion to reach at $225.1 billion as of April, according to the Central Bank on Wednesday.

The private sector's pending short-term loans from abroad also climbed to $20.1 billion, up $1.8 billion compared to the end of 2017.

By definition, short-term loans have an original maturity of one year or less while long-term loans have an original maturity of more than one year.

The bank said financial institutions constituted more than half of long-term loans -- 50.7 percent.

"In the same period, of the total short-term loans in the amount of $20.1 billion, 76.0 percent consists of liabilities of the financial institutions, whereas 24.0 percent consists of liabilities of the non-financial institutions," the bank said.

Regarding currency composition, 59 percent of the total long-term loans were U.S. dollar loans, 34.6 percent consisted of euro, 4.7 percent were in Turkish lira and 1.7 percent from other currencies, it said.

"And of the total short-term loans, 45.2 percent consists of dollars, 31.0 percent consists of euro, 23.7 percent consists of Turkish lira and 0.1 percent consists of other currencies," it said.

The bank also noted that principal repayments for the next 12 months by the end of April amounted $70.3 billion.

The Central Bank periodically releases data for the private sector’s long and short-term loans from abroad by gathering details from credit based forms submitted by resident financial institutions and companies.