Rising Debt Among Turkish Cypriots in Northern Cyprus

Debt levels among Turkish Cypriots in Northern Cyprus are climbing. Over the past year, the total debt has surged past 100 billion Turkish lira.

According to data from the Central Bank of the TRNC, the volume of bank loans has increased by 43% over the past year. Loans, which totaled 73 billion 867 million TL in June 2023, have risen by 32 billion TL to reach 105 billion 641 million TL by June 2024.

Business loans remain the largest category. From June 2023 to June 2024, business loans increased from 54 billion 307 million TL to 74 billion 555 million TL. Meanwhile, consumer loans grew from 13 billion 483 million TL to 18 billion 286 million TL.

This represents a 37% increase in business loans and a 35% rise in consumer loans over the year.

Despite the Turkish lira’s continued devaluation against foreign currencies, the volume of foreign currency loans has risen by 9.83%.

As of the end of June, 34 billion 969 million TL of loans were in Turkish lira, while 70 billion 671 million TL were in foreign currencies.

Additionally, short-term loans increased by 67.32%, and medium-term and long-term loans grew by 33.23% from June 2023 to June 2024.