By Gokhan Ergocun
ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish Central Bank’s total reserves reached $115.29 billion as of the end of January, the bank announced Wednesday.
Official reserve assets rose 7.1 percent, compared to $107.63 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to the bank's international reserves and foreign currency liquidity report.
In January, foreign currency reserves — in convertible foreign currencies — rose to $88.44 billion, a monthly increase of 7.1 percent.
As another sub-item of official reserve assets, gold reserves — including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped — climbed 7.4 percent last month to reach $25.28 billion, compared to the previous month.
At the end of January 2017, the bank's total reserves were $106.45 billion, including $89.05 billion in foreign currency along with $15.93 billion in gold reserves.
Over the past 10 years, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) official reserve assets rose nearly 61.5 percent, from $71.4 billion in January 2009 to $115.29 billion in January 2018.
In mid-December 2013, the bank's total reserves saw a historic high of nearly $136 billion, including some $21 billion in gold reserves.
– Liability side
Meanwhile, the bank noted that short-term predetermined net drains of the central government and the CBRT — foreign currency loans, securities, and foreign exchange deposit accounts of residents abroad within the CBRT — climbed 0.8 percent in January from the previous month, realizing at $11.77 billion.
Of this amount, $7.6 billion belongs to principal repayments and $4.16 billion to interest repayments, it added.
The CBRT report also said contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency rose 8.5 percent to $66.85 billion last month, compared to December 2017.
According to the bank's definition, contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency consist of “collateral guarantees on debt due within one year” and “other contingent liabilities, ” which are the banking sector’s required reserves in blocked accounts in foreign currency and gold, and letters of credit items on the CBRT’s balance sheet.
