Central government gross debt stock hits $234 bln

ANKARA

The gross debt stock of Turkey’s central government stood at 1.6 trillion Turkish liras (around $234 billion) at the end of May, according to official figures released on June 22.

The figure was 33.7% higher than the same month last year, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced.

The gross debt stock includes the outstanding debt of public sector institutions, the Central Bank, private companies, and households.

More than half of the debt stock, 825.2 billion Turkish liras ($121 billion), is denominated in foreign currency, the ministry said.

Nearly 966 billion Turkish liras ($142 billion) of the debt was domestic and 667.3 billion liras ($98 billion) were external, it added.

The stock of Treasury receivables stood at 18.3 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2.7 billion) as of May 31.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 6.82 at the end of last month.