By Murat Birinci
ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey is now facing a serious speculative attack lacking any economic basis, Adnan Bali, the CEO of private lender Isbank, said on Monday.
When we look at Turkey's inflation, budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio, or debt-to-GDP ratio, the currency issue cannot be explained through economic fundamentals, he told BloombergHT and HaberTurk in a televised interview.
Turkey's short-term — 1 year or less — liabilities total $180.6 billion, including $102 billion of them in lenders' obligations, with half of those non-residents' deposits, and the debts' refinancing ratio is 110 percent, he stressed.
“Meanwhile, under the reserve option mechanism, banks have nearly $30 billion in the Central Bank, which provides $50 billion foreign exchange deposit limits for lenders, ” he said.
Bali added: “Turkey's banking system has realizable foreign currency liquidity of around $50 billion. It refers to an unproblematic view. ”
On private sector debt — $73 billion — he said their refinancing ratio is over 130 percent.
There is no foreign exchange deficit in the Turkish banking system, according to Bali.
“The Central Bank and the banking watchdog's measures were positive, ” he stated.
Today the Central Bank has said that it will provide banks' liquidity needs in addition to other measures.
Last week there was balance in foreign currency transactions in Turkey, he highlighted adding that the country has crisis management experience and veteran managers.
