ISTANBUL: The Turkish central bank's net international reserves fell to $22.47 billion as of December 3, from $24.67 billion a week earlier, data showed on Thursday.

The exchange rate used by Reuters on Thursday was 13.4067.

Net forex reserves dipped below $10 billion in April before gradually rising through most of the year. But they could come under pressure again after a series of central bank market interventions, beginning last week, to address "unhealthy" prices after a weeks-long lira crash.

In 2019-2020, the net reserves plunged as the central bank sold off $128 billion via state banks to stabilize the lira, which has still steadily depreciated. Earlier this year, the sales emerged as a focus of what the political opposition calls government mismanagement.

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The central bank used swaps with local banks to backstop the 2019-2020 FX interventions, an unorthodox policy that spooked foreign investors and raised the risk of a balance of payments crisis, analysts said.

Data showed the bank's outstanding swap transactions stood at $45.571 billion as of Wednesday. The reserves are in negative territory once the swaps are deducted.