Gold reserves at Turkey’s Central Bank hit record high following dollar exchange policy

Uğur Gürses - ANKARA

The Turkish Central Bank’s gold reserves have reached a record-high 564.8 tons, mainly due to the Bank’s policy of replacing a large amount of U.S. dollar reserves with billions.

Total reserves including foreign exchange and gold reached $107.7 billion in value at the end of 2017, up $1.6 billion from a year earlier.

The increase came despite a $7.9 billion decline in U.S. dollar reserves from 2016, which stood at $84.1 billion at the end of 2017.

The value of gold held by the Central Bank increased to $23.5 billion from $14.1 billion in 2017.

The increase in gold reserves was supported by the 102 tons of gold deposited by banks to the Central Bank as required reserves, increasing their gold reserves by a total of nearly 86 tons.

The Central Bank, which has for years held 116 tons of its own gold reserves, began to shift its policy in May last year, and the amount reached 202 tons by the end of 2017.