Turkey’s external assets hit $234.2B in December 2018

By Tuba Sahin</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's assets abroad reached $234.2 billion at end-December, up 0.7 percent from the end of 2017, the Turkish Central Bank reported on Thursday.</p> <p>The country's liabilities against non-residents slipped 15.2 percent to hit $589.4 billion during the same period. </p> <p>Thus, Turkey's net international investment position (NIIP) — the gap between its external assets and liabilities — totaled minus $355.2 billion as of Dec. 31, down from minus $462.6 billion at the end of the previous year. </p> <p>NIIP is the value of overseas assets owned by a nation, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners, including overseas assets and liabilities held by a nation’s government, the private sector, and its citizens.</p> <p>Reserve assets were $93 billion at the end of last year, a 13.6 percent decline, while other investments came in at $89.1 billion, rising 16.7 percent in the same period.</p> <p>Currency and bank deposits, one of the sub-items of other investments, rose 27.7 percent to reach 44.6 billion.</p> <p>On the liabilities side, direct investment — equity capital plus other capital — at the end of 2018 was $136.1 billion, dropping 31.2 percent from the end of 2017 &quot;with the contribution of the changes in the market value and foreign exchange rates,&quot; the bank reported.</p> <p>The average USD/TRY rate was around 4.90 last year, while in 2017 one dollar was exchanged for 3.65 Turkish liras on average.</p> <p>Turkey's total external loan stock of lenders was $81.3 billion as of end-2018, down 14.3 percent from the end of 2017, the bank noted and added:</p> <p>&quot;Total external loan stock of the other sectors recorded $106.7 billion, increasing 0.9 percent.&quot;