Turkey is reportedly seeking a $20 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia in a bid to shore up its foreign exchange reserves.
On Wednesday, Turkish newspaper Dunya reported that Saudi Arabia is expected to initially deposit $10 billion in Turkish government bonds and accounts.
A Turkish Finance Ministry source confirmed to Middle East Eye that technical talks were underway to secure $20 billion from Saudi Arabia.
In June, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Ankara, ending a four-year rift with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accompanied him to the airport on his departure.
The visit came after Turkey withdrew a court case in which Saudi agents suspected of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi were on trial.
A joint statement by the two governments after the crown prince’s visit underlined the intention to deepen trade, energy and defense ties, as well as political and regional cooperation and consultation.
Turkish Finance Minister Nurettin Nebati told a group of reporters earlier this month that Turkey would need $30 billion to $35 billion to finance its current account deficit, which has been inflated by rising energy prices. He said Turkey was seeking help from friendly countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Bloomberg earlier this month reported that Russian state-owned Rosatom had decided to allocate $15 billion to Turkey to build the $20 billion Akkuyu nuclear power plant, citing officials who said an initial $5 billion had already been raised.
Officials said the move was a goodwill gesture by Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank Turkey for its landmark grain deal with Ukraine.
Rosatom is seeking to obtain a $6.1 billion credit line to build Akkuyu, temporarily placing the funds in Turkish government bonds and accounts.
7 billion dollars have already been received from Russia, which will go into Turkish accounts for the next two years. Hakan Kara, former chief economist of the Turkish Central Bank, confirmed through his own calculations that reserves did indeed increase by $7.3 billion.
Besides these, Turkey is also looking for similar “injections” from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Petros Kranias
Source: Capital
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