Saudi deposit lifts Turkey's net FX reserves to $25 bln

The Turkish central bank's net international reserves rose by $6 billion last week to $25 billion, three bankers' calculations showed on Tuesday, after a $5 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia entered its accounts.

The central bank's gross reserves rose $6.5 billion to $126.5 billion in the same period, they showed.

A deposit of $5 billion from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) entered the accounts of the Turkish Central Bank on Monday, bankers told Reuters last week.

 

Turkey's net foreign exchange reserves have rebounded from just over $6 billion last summer, when they were at their lowest in at least 20 years.

However, they had lost some $10 billion since a massive earthquake hit southern Turkey in early February, killing more than 56,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and leaving millions homeless.

Turkey's forex reserves dropped sharply in recent years due to market interventions and in the wake of a currency crisis in December 2021. The lira lost some 30 percent of its value against the dollar last year and 44 percent in 2021.