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down from TRY96bn (TRY83bn of non-interest and TRY13bn of interest expenditures) in February.
However, expenditures jumped to TRY113bn (TRY96bn of non-interest and TRY16bn of interest expenditures) in April, even as revenues grew to TRY66bn.
Turkey’s net external borrowing was at minus TRY699mn and TRY739mn in March and April, respectively, following TRY24bn of eurobond sales in February.
Net domestic borrowing boomed to a record high of TRY54bn in April from TRY17bn in March.
The Treasury used TRY24bn net from its bank accounts in March while it deposited a net TRY7bn in its bank accounts in April.
The central bank transferred TRY55bn to the Treasury in January. Total transfers from the central bank amounted to TRY90bn in 2019.
6.2 Debt
"We now think government debt will increase above 38% of GDP but at a BB level that is still a relative rating strength," Fitch’s top analyst Douglas Winslow said in an interview with Reuters on May 15, adding: "The BB median is 51 percent—so we think that Turkey still has some fiscal space."
There could be continued interventions in the financial markets such as to make it harder for traders to short the lira, administrative measures to dampen imports, higher tariffs or tax measures to support the current account position, Winslow said.
On May 20, the Turkish finance ministry said that the treasury would sell USD and EUR-denominated one-year domestic bonds and sukuks via direct sales to local lenders.
“Still waiting for the external Eurobond issue,” Timothy Ash of Bluebay Asset
39 TURKEY Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com
