According to the Turkish Central Bank’s International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity report, the Bank’s total gross reserves decreased by 2.8% in the month of January 2020. The reserves value as of January 31st, 2020 was USD 102.5 billion, compared with USD 105.5 billion as of the end of December 2019.
In January 2020, the Bank’s foreign currency reserves, in convertible foreign currencies, decreased by 4.7% to USD 73.5 billion, and its gold reserves increased by 2.4% to USD 27.5 billion, compared with the previous month of December.
The 2019 yearend total gross reserves figure of USD 105.5 billion represents a 13.4% increase over the USD 93 billion figure for 2018 yearend. The 2018 yearend figure had itself represented a decline of 13.6% from USD 107.7 billion at 2017 yearend. In mid-December 2013, the Bank's total reserves had reached their all-time peak of nearly USD 136 billion, including some USD 21 billion in gold reserves.
With regards its short-term liabilities in January 2020, the Bank made the following declaration on its website :
“Short term predetermined net drains of the Central Government and the CBRT (foreign currency loans, securities, FX deposit liabilities) increased by 6.4 percent to USD 17.1 billion on net basis, of which USD 12.3 billion in principal repayments and USD 4.8 billion in interest repayments. Additionally, outstanding FX and gold liabilities arising from the CBRT’s financial derivative activities with resident and non-resident banks indicated USD 19.8 billion, of which USD 10.8 billion is due in one month.
Contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency consists of “collateral guarantees on debt due within one year” and “other contingent liabilities (“Banking Sector’s Required Reserves in Blocked Accounts in Foreign Currency and Gold” and “Letters of Credit” items in the CBRT’s balance sheet). These liabilities increased by 3.8 percent to USD 35.9 billion compared to the previous month.”