Resilience to external shocks strengthening: Şimşek

ISTANBUL

The Turkish economy’s resilience to external shocks is increasing, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said, referring to the strengthening of foreign reserves and macro-financial stability.

For the first time since 2020, the Central Bank’s net reserves, excluding swaps, moved to positive territory, Şimşek wrote on the social media platform X.

Net reserves excluding swaps increased by $67 billion in the last two months, while gross reserves reached $143.6 billion, the minister said.

“In order to further increase our reserves, achieving a sustainable current account deficit through green transformation, energy efficiency and new industrial policies, policies to increase direct foreign investments and access to external resources similar to capital are important,” Şimşek said.

“We will achieve this by implementing the [economic] program with determination,” he added.

Data from the Central Bank showed on June 6 that the gross foreign currency reserves increased by $1.1 billion to reach $83.9 billion as of May 31.

Gold reserves rose by $264 million over the same period to $59.7 billion.

Separate data from the bank showed that non-residents bought $94.1 million worth of government domestic debt securities (GDDS) in the week ending May 31.

The holdings of non-residents’ GDDS rose to $9.94 billion, which marked the highest level since March 2020.

Non-residents, meanwhile, sold $528.9 million worth of equities in the same week, which brought foreign investors’ holding of Turkish equities to $41.1 billion as of May 31.