By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's banking sector's net profit totaled 38 billion Turkish liras ($5.94 billion) this January-August, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) announced on Monday.
According to the banking watchdog, the sector's eight-month net profit surged 14.3 percent, compared with around 33.3 billion Turkish liras ($9.7 billion) in the same period in 2017.
The BDDK figures showed that total assets of the banking sector amounted to nearly 4.5 trillion Turkish liras ($700 billion) as of August this year, up 50.2 percent increase on a yearly basis.
The biggest sub-category of assets, loans given by the sector, reached 2.7 trillion Turkish liras ($421 billion) at the end of August, rising 38.3 percent year-on-year.
On the liabilities side, deposits at the country's lenders climbed 39 percent over the same period, totaling 2.2 trillion Turkish liras ($348 billion).
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 6.40 at the end of this August, while one dollar traded for some 3.45 liras at the end of August 2017.
