5 billion dollars Saudi deposit in the Turkish Central Bank
Turkish Bankers said on Tuesday that a $5 billion deposit from the Saudi Fund for Development entered the accounts of Turkey’s central bank on Monday.
The Turkish Central Bank declined to comment on this matter.
Saudi Finance Minister Muhammad bin Abdullah al Jadaan announced in December his country’s intention to deposit the amount, and the fund said on March 6 that it had signed an agreement in this regard.
The Saudi deposit comes in the wake of joint efforts between Ankara and Riyadh to repair relations that were damaged after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s incident in October 2018 inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul.
Ankara already has currency swap deals worth $28 billion with the UAE, China, Qatar and South Korea, and bankers estimate that roughly $23-24 billion is already in the reserves of the Turkish central bank.
In place of swap agreements, the Central Bank of Türkiye has recently preferred deposit accounts that include dollars or euros entering the system rather than local currencies.
The Azerbaijani SOCAR company has a deposit account of 1 billion Euros in the Turkish Central Bank, and another central bank, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, has an account of approximately $2 billion.
After the latest agreement, the value of deposit accounts increased to about $8 billion.
Türkiye’s net foreign exchange reserves have recovered after reaching just over $6 billion last summer, which was the lowest in at least 20 years.
However, reserves have lost about $10 billion since the devastating earthquake that struck southern Türkiye in early February, killing more than 50,000 people and displacing millions.
Türkiye’s foreign exchange reserves have declined sharply in the past years due to market turmoil and in the aftermath of the currency crisis in December 2021.
The Turkish lira lost about 30% of its value last year and 44% in 2021.
