ANKARA: Loans by the Turkish banking sector were seen rising to some 175 billion lira ($48.80 billion) in the first quarter from 120 billion lira in the same period a year earlier, the banking association chairman said.
Huseyin Aydin, head of the Turkish Banks Association, said the rise was thanks to a set of measures taken by the government to boost lending, such as tax reductions for white goods and mortgages. After the rise, the share of loans in total assets will have risen to 68 percent at the end of the first quarter from 63 percent at the end of 2016, Aydin told reporters on the sidelines of an economic summit at Uludag, near Bursa in northwest Turkey.