February current account deficit data exceeds expectations

The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) has released the balance of payments data for February. Accordingly, the current account recorded a deficit of 4 billion 405 million dollars in February. When gold and energy are excluded, the current account recorded a surplus of 2 billion 158 million dollars.

Economists participating in the AA Finance expectation survey had projected that the current account would record a deficit of 4 billion 325 million dollars in February. Accordingly, the current account deficit came in 80 million above expectations. During this period, the foreign trade deficit defined by the balance of payments was 5 billion 730 million dollars. According to annualized data, the current account deficit reached approximately 12.8 billion dollars.

The foreign trade deficit was 58.8 billion dollars on an annual basis. The services balance provided a net inflow of 2 billion 453 million dollars in February. Under this item, 1 billion 167 million dollars in net income was generated from transport services, and 2 billion 6 million dollars from travel revenues. While the secondary income balance recorded a surplus of 246 million dollars, the primary income balance recorded a deficit of 16.4 billion dollars.

In the financing of the annualized current account deficit for February 2025, net direct investments contributed 4.8 billion dollars, net portfolio investments 15.2 billion dollars, loans 37.7 billion dollars, and trade credits 0.4 billion dollars; while net currency and deposits had a negative impact of 13.4 billion dollars.

The net increase in the Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves was 16.5 billion dollars. A net inflow of 11 million dollars was recorded in direct investments this month. While investments by non-residents in Türkiye increased by 561 million dollars, investments by residents abroad rose by 550 million dollars.

In real estate investments, it was observed that residents purchased 190 million dollars worth of real estate abroad, while non-residents made net real estate purchases of 134 million dollars in Türkiye.

Portfolio investments recorded a net inflow of 2,566 million dollars in February. It was observed that non-residents made net purchases of 25 million dollars in the stock market and 675 million dollars in the Government Domestic Debt Securities (GDDS) market.

Regarding bond issuances abroad; it was announced that non-residents made net purchases of 1,471 million dollars, 296 million dollars, and 282 million dollars in issuances by the General Government, banks, and other sectors, respectively.

In terms of loan utilization from abroad this month, banks and the General Government made net repayments of 900 million dollars and 120 million dollars, respectively, while other sectors had a net utilization of 969 million dollars.