The Turkish central bank’s gross foreign exchange reserves rose by 4% m/m to $90bn as of June 30 from $87bn on May 26, data in the national lender's regular weekly bulletin showed on July 6.

Gross FX reserves saw its yearly lowest level of $84.99bn as of April 28, the worst level recorded since July 2012. Gross reserves stood at $95.7bn at end-2015 and at $92.05bn by end-2016.

Consequently, total gross international reserves, including gold and FX reserves, rose to $109bn as of June 30 from $105bn as of May 26. Gross international reserves has fallen to $106bn at the end of 2016 from $111bn at the end of 2015.

The latest data also showed the central's bank's gold reserves rose to $18.5bn as of June 30 from $18bn on May 26. The gold reserves stood at $14.05bn at end-2016.

Turkey was taking steps to give its central bank the right of first refusal on domestically produced gold, allowing it to boost reserves of the precious metal without depleting foreign currency holdings, sources told Reuters in April.

The national lender's reserves have again appeared on the radar given the Turkish lira's volatility in the beginning of 2017. The USD/TRY rate recovered to below 3.55 in April after hitting the 3.90s in January.

The lira had lost 0.49% d/d against the USD to trade at 3.6242 per dollar by around 17:30 local time on July 4 while the benchmark BIST-100 index was down 0.17% to 100,573.

Large external financing needs against comparatively low foreign exchange reserves means that the country’s vulnerability to shocks will continue to weigh on its creditworthiness, Moody’s Investors Service warned in a report published in April.

The Turkish government's capacity to support the banking system if required is on the wane, Moody's also warned on May 3. The central bank's net FX reserves of $34bn as of January were modest compared to short-term bank wholesale maturities of almost $80bn, the rating agency said.