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country’s sovereign wealth fund, known as TVF, as saying. The TVF holds the licensing rights for the Milli Piyango lottery operator. TVF general manager Zafer Sonmez was cited as saying that “we are considering the transfer of operating rights for a 10-year period. We’ve been talking with all major companies since February”. Sonmez also reportedly told journalists that the fund was in discussions on becoming a minority partner in a major foreign- invested project that would lower the country’s current account deficit. The TVF, worth $50bn, was set up in 2016 to develop and increase the value of Turkey’s strategic assets. Resources gained from its efforts are to be ploughed into investment. Last September, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed its board and appointed himself chairman. The TVF has stakes in major Turkish companies including flag carrier Turkish Airlines, big banks and Turk Telekom. In further comments on the outlook for the national lottery, Sonmez said there was potential to up its annual revenues from Turkish lira (TRY) 3.5bn ($586mn), or 0.1% of GDP, to 1-2% of GDP. Previous tenders for the lottery operating rights failed.
6.2 Debt
TURKEY -DEBT
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Apr/19
Budget: gross debt (LC bn)
586
613
678
760
876
1,067
1,211
Budget: gross debt (% GDP)
32.4
30.0
29.0
29.1
28.2
28.8
-
53 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com