Türkiye’s foreign exchange reserves hit $6B after turning positive

The Turkish central bank’s net foreign reserves, excluding swaps, climbed to $6 billion (TL 194.19 billion) last week, according to bankers, maintaining the pace after they turned positive for the first time in four years a week earlier.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye’s (CBRT) net reserves, excluding swaps, have been steadily increasing over the past 10 weeks and turned positive with $1.5 billion in the week of May 31.

The rose by another $4.5 billion last week, bankers’ calculations showed on Monday.

Since the March 31 local elections, net reserves, excluding swaps, have risen by almost $72 billion, the bankers also said.

They were at a historic low of minus $65.5 billion on March 29, before the polls.

The growth in reserves is attributed to foreign exchange inflows, heightened investor interest and locals switching from hard currency to Turkish lira.

Official data last week showed that the central bank’s net international reserves rose $5 billion to $45.5 billion in the week to June 3, their highest level ever.

According to bankers’ calculations, net reserves rose another $2 billion last week to stand at $47.5 billion.

Official data will be released on Thursday.