Turkey received $28 billion of unknown origin. They say it's from tourists

In the period from January to August of this year, Turkey received about $28 billion of unknown origin, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Tuesday

The money, calculated by the central bank as "pure mistakes and omissions", closed about 70% of the current account deficit of Turkey's balance of payments (it was about $40 billion).

Turkish Finance Minister Noureddin Nebati claims that the main part of this money is unaccounted for income from tourism. He explained that many Russian tourists had to pay in cash due to Russia's disconnection from international payment systems due to sanctions.

The country's balance of payments is based on accounting principles: each economic transaction has a double entry – for the credit of one item and the debit of another (the same in value). The difference between the sum of all credit and debit records is shown in the article "net errors and omissions" and in theory should be zero.

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, Russians accounted for about 13% of the total number of foreign tourists in Turkey, only Germans were more.

The Turkish Finance Minister explained the other part of the income without a category by the repatriation of money from offshore, some of which also came in cash.

He assured that all receipts were legal. "[Turkey] is acting very cautiously within the international financial system. All our receipts go through legal ways," the minister said.

Nebati said that the inflow of currency will continue and will allow Turkey to comfortably avoid a balance of payments crisis over the next year.

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