ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is in talks with several countries over possible swap agreements, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said on Wednesday, saying the initiative was part of Ankara’s campaign to prioritise trading in local currencies.
“From now on, we will look at our local currency trade and we are holding talks with several countries on swaps,” Albayrak said in an interview with state broadcaster TRT Haber.
Without specifying whether Turkey was actively discussing swaps with all of them, Albayrak mentioned the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and India. “This is about the bilateral trade between two countries, based on the ties they have developed,” he said.
Last week Qatar tripled an existing swap line with Turkey to a value of $15 billion, and officials have told Reuters Ankara had also sought to expand a swap facility with China and set up swap lines with Japan and the United Kingdom.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans)
