The value of investments made by Turkish entrepreneurs abroad reached $43.9 billion in 2020, the country’s trade minister said Monday.
Mehmet Muş cited the ministry’s Overseas Investment Survey, which showed that Turkey-based natural and legal persons owned 2,118 investments across 124 countries.
Through these investments, they provide employment to a total of 158,066 people abroad, including 147,034 foreigners, the survey said.
These investments channeled exports from Turkey worth $6.4 billion and imports of around $4.1 billion.
The turnover of the investments has reached $35 billion, Muş said on Twitter.
The minister said the Turkish companies have become global actors with their foreign investments, further increasing their competitiveness in world markets.
Separate data by the central bank Monday showed Turkey’s external assets amounted to $249.9 billion at April-end, down 4.4% from 2020.
The country’s liabilities against nonresidents during the same period fell 9.1% to $593.5 billion, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said.
The net international investment position (NIIP) – the difference between external assets and liabilities – was minus $343.5 billion, versus minus $413.1 billion at the end of 2020.
As a snapshot in time, the NIIP, which can be either positive or negative, 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, private sector and its citizens.
Reserve assets, a sub-item under assets, were $88 billion at the end of April, down 5.7% from the end of last year.
Other investments, another sub-item under assets, totaled $106.4 billion, indicating an increase of 15.5% in the same period.
“Currency and deposits of banks, one of the sub-items of other investments, recorded $52.8 billion, indicating an increase of 25.9% compared to the end of 2020” the bank said.
On the liabilities side, direct investments – equity capital plus other capital – as of the end of April were $161.4 billion, down 26.8%, including the effects of changes in market value and foreign exchange rates.
Nonresidents’ foreign exchange deposits were $33.9 billion, up 1.7% in April versus the end of 2020.
The bank added that Turkish lira deposits rose 1.5%, recording $16 billion.
It said banks’ total external loan stock amounted to $66 billion – up 2.8% – and total external loan stock of other sectors was $97 billion in the same period.
