Turkish Central Bank reserves in January reach $98B

The official reserves of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) reached $98 billion in January, the bank announced Thursday.

Total reserve assets saw a rise of 5.4 percent last month, up from $93 billion at the end of 2018. Foreign currency reserves in January climbed 6.2 percent month-on-month to hit $75.8 billion in convertible foreign currencies.

The bank's gold reserves also climbed 2.7 percent to $20.7 billion, including gold deposits and, where appropriate, gold swapped. On a yearly basis, the bank's official reserves fell 15 percent. The figure was some $115.3 billion at the end of January 2018.

The report added that the short-term predetermined net drains of the central government and the bank fell 3.3 percent on a monthly basis, reaching $12.5 billion. "Of this amount, $8.2 billion belongs to principal repayments and 44.3 billion to interest repayments.

"Regarding the maturity breakdown of the principal and interest payments, $400 million is due in one month, $4.2 billion in two to three months and $7.9 billion in four to 12 months," the bank said. Last month, contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency amounted to $33.2 billion, falling 0.2 percent from December 2018.According to the bank's definition, contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency consist of "collateral guarantees on debt due within one year" and other contingent liabilities, which are the banking sector's required reserves in blocked accounts in foreign currency and gold, and the letters of credit items on the central bank's balance sheet.