By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's banking sector net profit totaled 32.8 billion Turkish liras ($5.65 billion) in January-August this year, the country's banking watchdog reported on Monday.
Total assets of the sector dropped 4.88% year-on-year to 4.27 trillion Turkish liras ($736 billion), according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.
Loans — the biggest sub-category of assets — went down 6.13% on a yearly basis to amount to some 2.53 trillion Turkish liras ($437 billion).
On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.35 trillion Turkish liras ($406 billion) in the eight-month period, marking an annual hike of 5.74%.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was around 5.81 at the end of August this year, versus 6.42 at the end of the same month in 2018.
