Turkey’s Central Bank said Wednesday it had returned a $5 billion deposit to Saudi Arabia, the latest move marking Ankara’s economic turnaround from its worst financial downturn and foreign currency crunch in decades.

"Our external liabilities have recently improved by approximately USD 7 billion through the reduction of deposit balances," the bank said in a statement.

The Saudi Fund for Development decided to hold the funds in the Turkish Central Bank in March 2023 after ministerial meetings the previous year. The deposit helped Turkey firm up its weakened currency, the lira. But even after that, the currency continued to fall against the dollar: A year ago, $1 amounted to 26.93 lira, and on Wednesday, a dollar was equivalent to 32.84 lira, around a 22% drop in value.

On July 8, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek posted on the X platform........

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