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Southeast Europe
August 17, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
The PSD and its allies are relatively secure in their majority in both houses of parliament, and may have assumed the protests will have subsided sufficiently not to affect their chances when the next general election comes around in late 2020 or early 2021. Anti-corruption protesters are more or less by definition not going to be PSD voters in the first place.
This means the PSD most likely is taking the gamble that its tinkering with the judicial system and criminal law won’t alienate its support base to the extent that it loses the next election. And while the international criticism is unwelcome,
Brussels has proved itself toothless in similar standoffs with Budapest and Warsaw.
As a result, the Romanian government — driven by the self-interest of its top politicians rather than illiberal ideology — is taking its place along- side the challengers to the EU’s value system from CEE. And the bigger the cohort of illiberally minded CEE nations within the EU becomes, the more power it has within a union that is still grap- pling with Brexit and other crises.
With additional reporting by Ben Aris in Berlin.
UK with top exposure to Turkish private sector foreign loans
Akin Nazli in Belgrade
Turkey’s private sector long-term foreign loans contracted by 2% q/q to stand at $222bn as of end-June, the central bank said on August 15.
At a combined $111bn, European countries had the largest exposure to Turkish private companies’ outstanding long-term foreign credits. They were led by the UK with $30bn and second-placed Germany with $22bn.
Turkey, enduring a torrid currency crisis, was at the beginning of this week described by many analysts as being days away from entering a debt and liquidity crisis, but a recovery in the value of the Turkish lira (TRY) is under way, thus leading some observers to revise their predictions.
The fresh statistics listed the US as having the third largest exposure to the outstanding long- term loans, at $20bn. It was followed by the Netherlands with $14bn and Bahrain with $11bn (full table published on IntelliNews Pro).
Of lenders, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had the largest share, at $10bn. Next were the European Investment Bank with $5bn, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation with $3bn, the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development with $2bn, the Islamic Development Bank with $397mn and the Council of Europe Development Bank with $290mn.
The data also showed Turkish banks’ outstanding long-term loans declined by 2% q/q to $94bn at end-Q2, with $31bn of that made up of bonds.
Non-financial private companies’ total outstand- ing loans edged down 1% y/y to $111bn at end- June, including $91bn worth of bank loans, $12bn worth of loans from parent companies or affili- ates, $442mn in trade credits and $8bn in bonds.
Private creditors provided $154bn of the total of $222bn of outstanding loan stock, while $91bn