Türkiye's Central Bank Governor Durmus Yilmaz released the Financial Stability Report on Tuesday, noting that the country's financial sector maintained steady growth in 2005, following a similarly stable 2004. The sector's total volume reached 469.9 billion YTL (approximately 1.61 YTL to the dollar), with banking accounting for 87 percent of that figure. Banking sector assets rose nearly 30 percent year over year.
Foreign and publicly traded capital increased their combined share of banking assets to 16 percent in 2005, while the portions held by domestic public and private investors declined. All 51 active banks in Türkiye showed resilience against currency and credit risks, Yilmaz said.
The report flagged an ongoing shortfall in domestic savings relative to investment demand, making a large current account deficit unavoidable. The budget deficit fell to 4.4 percent of gross national product in 2005, though the Turkish lira, which had been overvalued by roughly 20 percent, shed about 7 percent of its value during the year.
Yilmaz credited tight fiscal and monetary policies, along with progress in the EU accession process, for driving economic gains, pointing to single-digit inflation, above-target growth, and declining real interest rates as key achievements.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.