Aksaray loves the dollar, Ardahan’s choice was TL

■ Tolga UĞUR

OF THE YEAR While Aksaray was Turkey’s most foreign exchange city in the third quarter, Ardahan preferred TL deposits. According to data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA), at the end of September, total deposits of domestic residents in the banking system reached 12.3 trillion lira. Of the total deposits, 3.9 trillion lira were spent in foreign currency and 743.3 billion lira in precious metal accounts. When the accumulation in foreign currency deposit accounts of 3.9 trillion lira ($145 billion) was added to the protected foreign currency deposit accounts, which at the end of September had a volume of 3.3 trillion lire ), the dollarization rate was calculated at 58 percent. . According to the data, the province with the highest dollarization rate was Aksaray. 48.86 percent of deposits at Aksaray were valued in foreign currency accounts. Nevşehir, Kırşehir, Yozgat and Kütahya, where the dollarization rate exceeds 45 percent, constituted the top five places. Ardahan, where only a fifth of total deposits are in foreign currency accounts, is at the bottom of the list. After Ardahan, the lowest currency accumulation rates were observed in Bitlis and Van with 24 percent.

79 BILLION DOLLARS IN ISTANBUL

In major cities, 684.2 billion lira ($25 billion) of Ankara’s total deposits of 1.8 trillion lira as of the end of September were assessed in foreign currency accounts, while the rate of dollarization of the capital was 38 percent. Istanbulites, on the other hand, invested 2.1 trillion lira of their 5.5 trillion lira savings in deposits in foreign currency accounts. While Istanbul’s dollarization rate was 39 percent, its foreign currency savings amounted to $79 billion.

743 billion precious metals

At the end of September, 6 percent of savings were deposited in precious metal deposit accounts. The size of precious metals accounts, where investment instruments such as gold and silver are evaluated, reached 743 billion lira in the third quarter of the year. Ardahan, Kilis and Bayburt were recorded as the provinces with the least interest in precious metals at the end of September.

228 billion liras are in Istanbul

It is worth noting that 30 percent of savings in precious metal accounts are located in Istanbul. With an investment in precious metals exceeding 228 billion lira, Istanbul alone covered almost a third of the country’s savings. While Ankara came in second place with an accumulation of 75 billion lira, the precious metal investments of Izmir residents amount to 43 billion lira.