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$47.35bn in 2017. The lira crisis that peaked in August caused a sudden stop in inflows via the country’s balance of payments. Consequently, Turkey posted a cumulative current account surplus of $7.55bn for an interrupted four months from August to November. It fell into recession in the second half of the year. Since December, the country’s cumulative current account deficit amounts to $3.45bn due to the limited recovery in economic activity financed by fiscal easing and lending by public banks in the run-up to the March 31 municipal elections. In Q1, the cumulative deficit in the current account amounted to $1.94bn. That’s 88% y/y lower than the $16.2bn seen a year ago when GDP growth was still booming. The 12-month rolling cumulative deficit has declined for a 10th consecutive month since the $57.9bn seen in May 2018. It reached $12.9bn in March from $17bn in February.
5.2.4 Gross intl reserves
Turkey’s central bank sets up lira-for-gold swap market as of May 6.
Turkey’s central bank set up a Turkish lira-for-gold swap transaction market as of May 6, bankers told Reuters. The new market created by the central bank, which would receive gold in the transaction, would have a total unmatured swap purchase amount of 100 tonnes, according to a letter the regulator sent to lenders. The transactions will have a one-week maturity. The central bank on May 7 set a one-week maturity gold price at Turkish lira (TRY) 245,793 ($39,734) per kilogram in its new lira-for-gold swap market. The national lender set the spot price per kilogram at TRY244,650 lira in the market. The gold interest rate was set at 0 percent while the lira rate was 24%.
39 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com