ANKARA: Turkey’s banking sector grew by 18 percent last year, with lenders’ overall balance sheet size reaching 2.3 trillion Turkish Liras, according to the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB).
Adjusted for exchange rate differences, growth stood at 11 percent. However, the sector’s total assets decreased by 6 percent in dollar terms, falling to $808 billion. Some 62 percent of bank assets and 55 percent of bank resources were held in liras, meaning that the share of lira assets and resources in balance sheets also fell in 2015 compared to 2014. The ratio of the banking sector’s balance sheet growth to GDP increased by six points in 2015, reaching 121 percent.
Meanwhile, by growing 20 percent in nominal terms and 15 percent in fixed exchange rates, Turkish banks’ credit stock reached 1.5 billion liras. The ratio of credit to assets was 63 percent and the ratio of credit to GDP was 76 percent.
The TBB’s numbers show that the share of credit given in liras in 2015 was 68 percent. The credit share of large businesses was 49 percent and the credit share of small and medium sized enterprises was 26 percent.
