South Korea last week transferred $780 million to Turkey’s central bank, a portion of the $2 billion agreed under a swap deal signed in 2021, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The latest figure brings the total amount transferred to Turkey from South Korea under the deal to almost $1 billion, the agency said, citing two bankers, whose calculations are based on the central bank’s balance sheet and reserves data.
The Turkish central bank did has not commented on the issue, Reuters reported.
Turkey’s central bank has spent over $150 billion of its reserves defending the lira since a currency crisis in 2018. The reserves have come under pressure from its forex market interventions to support the country’s sliding currency and to meet government institutions’ forex needs.
Turkey maintains a total of $28 billion currency swap deals with the United Arab Emirates, China, Qatar and South Korea. Ankara is also hoping for a swap deal with Saudi Arabia, and has made moves to improve relations with Egypt and Israel.
Turkey’s forex reserves stood at $9.72 billion as of Sept. 30, according to data cited by Reuters, up from a 20-year low of $6.07 billion it touched in July.
The Turkish central bank’s foreign currency reserves are getting stronger as friendly countries are providing support, President Tayyip Erdoğan said last month.
“Our central bank reserves started to increase. This enables us to act comfortably in terms of foreign currency reserves. In this regard, many friendly countries are currently extending their necessary support,” HaberTürk cited Erdoğan as saying, adding that companies from Europe and elsewhere would make some $20 billion investment in Turkey.
Azeri SOCAR maintains depo account worth 1 billion euros at the Turkish central bank, Reuters reported, while another central bank, the name of which has not been disclosed, maintains an account worth almost $2 billion.
Ahval