According to the Turkish Central Bank’s International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity report, the Bank’s total gross reserves fell by 14.5% in the month of March 2020. The reserves value as of March 31st, 2020 was USD 92.1 billion, compared with USD 107.7 billion as of the end of February 2020.
In March 2020, the Bank’s foreign currency reserves, in convertible foreign currencies, fell by 21.9% to USD 59.2 billion, whereas its gold reserves increased by 3.3% to USD 31.4 billion, compared with the previous month of February.
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 March 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 23.4 percent to USD 22.4 billion, of which USD 17.4 billion in principal repayments and USD 5 billion in interest payments. Additionally, outstanding FX and gold liabilities arising from the CBRT’s financial derivative activities with resident and non-resident banks recorded USD 30.9 billion, of which USD 16.3 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 recorded USD 32.7 billion decreasing by 11.1 percent compared to the previous month.”