Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

Turkish state minister said on Tuesday that the Turkish government had almost reached an agreement on the amount of loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and he would invite IMF delegation to Turkey at the beginning of January.

Delivering a speech at a meeting on global economic crisis organized by the Association of Antalya’s Industrialists and Businessmen in the southern city of Antalya, State Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that they had taken measures against global economic crisis and launched new initiatives in regard to increasing sustainable and renewable energy sources. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

The number of airline passengers in Turkey reached 66 million in the first 10 months of 2008, an increase of 6.3 percent over the same period last year, the State Airports Management General Directorate (DHMİ) announced yesterday.

Nearly 7 million people traveled by air in October, an 8.2 percent increase over the same month of 2007. The total number of flights in January-October 2008 increased by 7.4 percent over the same period of 2007.

In the first 10 months of 2008, İstanbul Atatürk Airport saw 20.1 million passengers, while Antalya Airport followed with 17.7 million passengers. İzmir’s Adnan Menderes Airport had the third-largest number of travelers, welcoming 4.7 million people, while Esenboğa Airport in Ankara hosted 4.6 million people in the same period. Aviation companies in Turkey have continued their attractive promotional campaigns, discounting airfares despite the ongoing global financial crisis. This has led to more people showing a greater interest in air travel. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

This week Turkish markets have remained static despite bad news coming out of the larger markets to Turkey’s east and west.

As Asian markets closed yesterday in minus territory as a result of a number of negative developments in production and consumption figures, markets in Europe have been mixed. Wall Street closed yesterday’s session squarely in the negative as a result of a stream of problematic developments, including a crumbling auto sector and dire retail sales. The İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) closed its first session mildly down at 0.16 percent. During midday trading on Tuesday, the dollar was buying YTL 1.515, and benchmark T-bills were trading at 17 percent.

Explaining the logic behind the flat performance of Turkish markets, despite grisly trading in markets that usually set the trend for Turkey, Murat İğnebekçili, an analyst at EFG Securities, described the “central bank’s surprise rate cut as being the primary element that has neutralized the negative developments” elsewhere. İğnebekçili said other factors weighing in on the performance of Turkish markets, including rising commodity prices, plunging oil prices and expectations of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) standby plan, also play a significant role in dampening these effects. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

The net foreign capital inflow to Turkey declined 15.7 percent to $12.7 billion in the January-October term in 2008, compared to the same period of 2007, the Treasury announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Net foreign direct investment also fell 15.9 percent to $15.2 billion in the same term compared to the same period of last year, the statement also said. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

Turkey’s shipbuilding industry has been experiencing a serious decline in production over the last four months. Erkan Selah, a leading figure of the industry, says the ‘shipyards crisis’ is due to the controversy over fatal workplace accidents in Tuzla and not the global crisis

As the global financial crisis begins to bite in Turkey, many industries have complained of its destructive effects. But for the shipbuilding industry, the crisis began much earlier and due to a very different reason, according to a top industry representative.

The crisis of Turkish shipbuilding began with “the incidents in Tuzla shipyards,” Erkan Selah, vice chairman of the Turkish Shipbuilders Association, or GİSBİR, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview last week. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 23rd, 2008

Turkey’s economic activity has stagnated amid the global crisis, a set of recent figures have shown, with the number of new companies seeing a significant drop over last year.

The monthly statistics on established and liquidated companies for November, released yesterday by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), revealed that the slowdown is deepening and becoming more serious. According to the figures, the number of companies established in November dropped by 37 percent over the same month a year ago. In November 2007, Turkish entrepreneurs established 4,904 companies while during the same month this year, only 3,088 new companies opened their doors. Of the newly established companies, 1,149 were in İstanbul, 366 in Ankara and 181 in İzmir. The remaining 1,392 started up in the other 78 provinces. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 23rd, 2008

Turkish Airlines (THY), Turkey’s national air carrier, announced yesterday that it had bought 49 percent of Bosnian Airlines (B&H Airlines).

In a written statement, THY said the partnership agreement was signed after the Bosnian government approved the sale. The sale was approved on Nov. 23, but THY Chairman Candan Karlıtekin said they continued talks with their Bosnian counterparts to finalize the sale. THY is expected to have three representatives on the B&H Airlines executive board and does not plan to go beyond the 49 percent share. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 23rd, 2008

Islamic banking in Turkey dates back to 1985, when the government, led by the late Turgut Özal, passed legislation for interest-free banking. The first “participation bank” was Albaraka Türk, established in February 1985, followed by Faisal Finans two months later.

Islamic banks offer customers profit-sharing proceeds instead of interest, and charge borrowers participation-sharing, instead of loan interest.

They operate two types of accounts to collect funds from depositors. One is a “current account” that does not provide any type of return, but offers conventional services such as cheque books, money transfers and documentary collection. (more…)