By the end of 2018, the Turkish private sector's scheduled total loan debt repayments amount to $34.7bn. Moody's decision to lower the foreign currency ceiling also reflected the ongoing weakening of Turkey's institutions and the increasingly unpredictable policy environment, as exemplified by the recent presidential decree forcing the redenomination of property contracts between Turkish entities, banning hard currency transactions. The decision to lower the ceiling to two notches below the government bond rating reflected Moody's view that the government may come to conclude that inhibiting access to foreign currency deposits is necessary if pressures on the balance of payments and thereby on its own debt are to be alleviated. The risk that the government places constraints on deposit holders' access to their foreign currency deposits is therefore higher than the risk that it defaults on its own debt, according to Moody's.