Economy in steady recovery period: Minister

Nuray Babacan - ANKARA

The Turkish economy is in a steady recovery period, Treasury and Finance Minister Lütfi Elvan has told some members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) group in parliament.

The burden caused by the increase in foreign exchange has been relieved, he said during a meeting with a group of MPs following his presentation to the party’s central executive board, sources told daily Hürriyet.

“Tourism and exports play big roles in the recovery of economic balances. We have placed the utmost importance to austerity,” he added, also saying that new legislation draft bills will be brought to parliament in the upcoming months.

Answering questions about cheap loans granted by banks during the pandemic, Elvan said: “There’s no problem in corporate loans and their repayments. But we are in contact with the banks to limit personal loans because they have increased significantly.”

The total assets of the Turkish banking sector hit 6.7 trillion liras ($785 billion), up 10.2 percent from the same period last year, a report by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, surged 9.5 percent year-on-year to 3.9 trillion liras ($469 billion) in the six-month period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – totaled over 3.9 trillion liras ($469 billion), up 12 percent from a year ago. Pointing to lenders’ minimum capital requirements, the banking sector’s regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets ratio – the higher the better – was 17.7 percent by the end of this June, versus 19.5 percent in January 2020.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 3.6 percent in the same period.
The restructuring of the Turkish real sector’s debts to the domestic lenders has accelerated in May and June, according to figures from the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB).

The program was integrated with legislation in 2019. In July, it was extended again and the upper limit of loan debt restructuring for small firms was increased from 25 million liras ($2.9 million) to 100 million liras ($11.6 million).