Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at March 14th, 2009

Turkey’s first high-speed train, running between Ankara and Eskişehir, has started to carry passengers. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took an inaugural ride at 9:40 a.m. on Friday with a host of other officials and journalists following a ceremony at the Ankara train station.

Erdoğan said during the ceremony that a high-speed line running between Eskişehir and İstanbul was also in the works, and that when they completed an Ankara-İstanbul line, they will have realized a 10-year dream.

By the end of 2010, an Ankara-Konya line should be complete, Erdoğan said, recalling the importance of this transportation project to his administration. “In this way, we’re spreading railroads across the country,” the prime minister said. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 12th, 2009

The Nabucco pipeline project is crucial as being the backbone of the market, said the project’s CEO Reinhard Mitschek on Thursday.

Europe and Turkey are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign sources of energy as consumption increases, Mitschek said at the 8th Turkey International Oil and Gas Conference in Ankara, adding that the 8 billion euro estimated worth of the project would also contribute to the growth of the Turkish economy, the Anatolian Agency reported. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 12th, 2009

Turkey is among the top three countries to lose the highest number of billionaires as the financial crisis shrinks total riches globally, Forbes magazine reported on Wednesday in its annual tally of the planet’s richest people. Bill Gates topped the list.

The number of billionaires globally fell to 793 from 1,125 a year ago, plummeting to $2.4 trillion from $4.4 trillion Forbes said, adding that the number of billionaires in Turkey in 2008 declined to 13 from 35 the previous, the highest fall after Russia and India. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is attending the world’s largest travel and trade fair, the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin, which begins today.

With the slogan “The perfect holiday starts here,” the fair offers an excellent opportunity for travel industry representatives to come together. With 11,147 exhibitors, comprising 8,540 foreign and 2,607 German parties, ITB Berlin 2009 is being held on 160,000 square meters of floor space at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. Almost 180,000 visitors have already registered to attend the fair, which runs through March 15. In order to make the fair as convenient as possible for visitors, organizers have arranged market segments thematically so visitors will have no problem finding their way within the enormous fair space. Market segments that are expected to be particularly popular include among others culture tourism, travel technology, health tourism and cruises. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

Creativity pays off for Turkey’s capital city of Ankara. The virtue has carried the city to the top of a list that was conducted to rank Turkish cities on their competitiveness.

Ankara has creatively outperformed all other Turkish cities to become the country’s most competitive city. The virtue that helped the city climb to the top of the “Competitiveness Index Research for Turkey” list was “creativity.” (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

The unemployment rate in Bursa, Turkey’s car manufacturing hub, has reached a new high, with 13,773 losing their jobs in just the first two months of 2009.

Several major car manufacturers and auto parts producers, such as Tofaş, Oyak-Renault and Bosch, operate in Bursa and export around 80 percent of their goods. The Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions’ (Türk-İş) representative in Bursa, Mehmet Kanca, said Tuesday that the increasing unemployment in the city is “worrisome,” adding: “In the final quarter of 2008, the crisis really started to sink its teeth into Turkish markets, in particular. Around 56,700 employees lost their jobs in Bursa, and only 7,815 new employees were hired that whole year.” (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

According to a recent report from the G-20, of which Turkey is a member, Turkey is among the few countries that have managed to adhere to a “balanced” public financing policy, the Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

The G-20 report stated that despite the ongoing global financial crisis, Turkey has been able to maintain balance in its public expenditures. The report also suggested that inflation in Turkey was expected to decline this year and in 2010. The drop in inflation is mainly due to the decreasing prices of goods and shrinking demand in the domestic market, it said. The report stated that the stimulus packages announced by G-20 member states would contribute to their economic growth, if only to a limited extent. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

Foreigners, who once practically ruled the Istanbul Stock Exchange, continue unloading portfolios. Local investors, who have increased their share at the bourse, are also keeping a close eye on the global markets, hoping to turn the crisis into an opportunity.

Foreign investors continue to rapidly exit the Turkish market as they lose risk appetite due to an instable climate brought upon by the global turmoil, which has gained intensity as of the last quarter of 2008. (more…)