Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at November 3rd, 2011

Turkey’s trade deficit widened to a record level in September compared with last year, official figures published yesterday show.

Skyrocketing current trade deficit and a low domestic savings ratio in the growing economy raise concerns about the country’s dependency on import products and booming demand, according to professionals.

The trade deficit was $10.4 billion in September, the biggest gap recorded, compared with $6.7 billion on September last year and $8.2 billion the previous month, according to figures published by Turkey’s Statistical Institute (TÜİK). Measures taken by Turkey’s Central Bank have thus failed to reduce the trade gap in September, an economist told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Turkey might have already experienced the “peak” in its trade deficit by last month, and it might take a few months for the Central Bank’s steps to show their effect on the economy, Erol Katıcıoğlu, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, told the Daily News yesterday. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 3rd, 2011

The total revenue earned through online payments increased by 52 percent to 16.9 billion Turkish Liras in the year’s first nine months compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday.

“Almost one in every five people in Turkey now shops online,” said Soner Canko, general manager of the Interbank Card Center (BKM), speaking at Cardist 2011 International Card and Smart Technologies Exhibition & Summit held in Istanbul. He said Turkey ranked among the biggest markets in Europe regarding online commerce. The number of Internet transactions jumped 37 percent in the first three quarters compared to the same period in 2010, reaching 91.4 million transactions. (more…)

Posted by meb at October 20th, 2011

Turkey’s unemployment rate fell 1.5 percentage points to 9.1 percent for the period between June and August, according to data published today by Turkey’s official statistical agency (TÜİK).

The number of unemployed fell by 273,000 to 2.50 million people in the period compared to the same period last year.

Urban unemployment fell by 1.7 points to 11.5 percent, whereas rural unemployment fell by 0.8 points to 4.7 percent. (more…)

Posted by meb at October 20th, 2011

The Turkish Central Bank’s already moderate foreign exchange reserves, which fell to $85.9 billion Turkish Liras as of Oct. 14 down from $93 billion at the end of July, signal a risky shrink as the bank continues to sell U.S. dollars in a bid to defend the value of the lira.

The figure announced by the bank yesterday comes after a big campaign of dollar sales that started this week. The Central Bank sold more than $1 billion in total on Oct. 18 in a direct intervention and a daily auction. It sold an additional $750 million of dollars in yesterday’s auction.

The bank has sold $6.45 billion since it started its daily forex auctions on Aug. 5. (more…)

Posted by meb at April 19th, 2011

A survey conducted among the 500 leading export and import firms in Turkey has shown that the export sector’s expectations for the future have improved by a large margin as a strong indicator of optimism.

According to the Foreign Trade Expectations Survey conducted by the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat (DTM) the Expectation Index both for exports and imports are up for the second quarter of this year. The Export Expectation index has gone up by 20.2 points, while the import expectation index climbed by 15.4 points quarter-on-quarter. Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan shared the findings of the survey with the media on Monday in Ankara.

According to Çağlayan, the study showed that the first quarter’s export expectation index of 122.7 increased to 142.9 for the second quarter this year. Any value above, below or equal to 100 represents an upward expectation, lower expectation and neutral expectation, respectively. (more…)

Posted by meb at April 19th, 2011

The Turkish Central Bank will probably keep its benchmark interest rates at a record low until year-end and may extend higher reserve requirements for banks into 2013, according to Istanbul-based Türk Ekonomi Bankası, or TEB.

The Central Bank has cut interest rates by 75 basis points since December to help slow capital inflows, while increasing reserve requirements to cap growth in loans and contain the current-account deficit. The bank last increased the reserve requirement for one-month deposits to 15 percent from 10 percent on March 23. (more…)

Posted by meb at April 11th, 2011

Turkey’s current-account deficit more than doubled in February over a year earlier, the 14th consecutive widening in a measure the Central Bank says it is trying to contain.

The deficit rose from $2.7 billion to $6.1 billion in the same month of 2010, the Central Bank in Ankara said Monday on its website. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of nine economists was for a gap of $6.3 billion.

The cumulative deficit for the 12 months through February was $54.8 billion, or about 7 percent of estimated gross domestic product. The government’s medium-term plans forecast a gap of $42.2 billion, or 5.4 percent of GDP. (more…)

Posted by meb at April 11th, 2011

Turkey’s gross domestic product, which grew 8.2 percent in 2010, is expected to register a 4.6 percent growth rate this year, according to a recent report from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF.

The 2011 World Economic Outlook report of the IMF read that the global economy will grow by 4.4 percent this year and by 4.5 percent in 2012. IMF published the first and second parts of the report Monday.

The economic outlook report expects Turkey’s GDP to grow by 4.6 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2012. Rapid economic recovery in Turkey is forecasted to continue according to the economic outlook report of the IMF. The consumer price index, which grew by 8.6 percent in annual basis last year, is expected to show a 5.7 percent increase in 2011 and 6 percent in 2012. (more…)