Turkey’s external assets hit $234.2b

ANKARA (AA): Turkey’s assets abroad reached $234.2 billion at end-December, up 0.7 percent from the end of 2017, the Turkish Central Bank reported on Thursday.

The country’s liabilities against non-residents slipped 15.2 percent to hit $589.4 billion during the same period.

Thus, Turkey’s net international investment position (NIIP) — the gap between its external assets and liabilities — totaled minus $355.2 billion as of Dec. 31, down from minus $462.6 billion at the end of the previous year.

NIIP is the value of overseas assets owned by a nation, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners, including overseas assets and liabilities held by a nation’s government, the private sector, and its citizens. Reserve assets were $93 billion at the end of last year, a 13.6% decline, while other investments came in at $89.1 billion, rising 16.7 percent in the same period.

Currency and bank deposits, one of the sub-items of other investments, rose 27.7 percent to reach 44.6 billion. On the liabilities side, direct investment — equity capital plus other capital — at the end of 2018 was $136.1 billion, dropping 31.2 percent from the end of 2017 “with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates,” the bank reported.

Turkey’s total external loan stock of lenders was $81.3 billion as of end-2018, down 14.3 percent from the end of 2017, the bank noted and added:

“Total external loan stock of the other sectors recorded $106.7 billion, increasing 0.9 percent.”