By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's banking sector's net profit totaled 53.52 billion Turkish liras ($10.16 billion) in 2018, the country's banking watchdog announced on Wednesday.
Last year, the banking sector's net profit surged 10.02 percent year-on-year, compared with 48.64 billion liras ($12.88 billion) the previous year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA).
Surging 18.7 percent on a yearly basis, total assets of the sector amounted to nearly 3.87 trillion liras ($735 billion) as of December 2018.
Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, rose some 14 percent to reach 2.39 trillion liras ($455 billion).
Deposits held at lenders in Turkey — the largest liabilities item — totaled 2.03 trillion Turkish liras ($387 billion), showing an annual hike of 19 percent.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was around 5.27 as of Dec. 31 last year, versus around 3.80 at the end of 2017.
