Turkey's central bank said Monday the country's short-term external debt stock amounted to $123.5 billion (TL 847 billion) as of the end of May.
The country's external debt stock – maturing within one year or less – dropped by 0.1% in May versus the end of 2019, according to the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT).
Some 41.8% of the debt stock was composed of U.S. dollars, 28% euros, 14.1% Turkish liras and 16.1% other currencies, the bank said.
The banks' short-term external debt stock posted a decrease of 2.1% to $55 billion and other sectors' short-term external debt dropped by 16.8% to $49.1 billion during the same period. The rest of the amount – some $ 19.4 billion – belonged to the central bank, up from $8.4 billion at the end of the last year, according to the bank's data.
From the borrowers' side, the short-term debt of the public sector, which consists of public banks, increased by 2.6% to $ 25.7 billion, the data showed. “The short-term debt of the private sector decreased by 13% to $ 78.4 billion compared to the end of 2019,” the bank said.
Short-term foreign exchange (FX) loans the banks received from foreign countries fell by 5.8% to $7.3 billion, the data showed.
Foreign exchange deposits of nonresidents – except in the banking sector – in resident banks were down by 0.2% in May versus the end of 2019, recording $21 billion. “And FX deposits of nonresident banks recorded $ 11.2 billion, decreasing by 18.2%,” it added.
The central bank also noted that nonresidents' Turkish lira deposits increased by 13.2% and were recorded as $15.4 billion in the same period.
Separately, data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) showed on Friday that state banks' short foreign currency positions had increased to $9.7 billion as of July 10, from $8.3 billion a week earlier.
The increase in state banks' short FX position has coincided with greater stability of the Turkish lira, which is trading in a narrow range after settling in mid-May and staying almost unchanged from 6.85 to the U.S. dollar since mid-June.
