Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Turkey’s state minister, Mehmet Simsek forecast on Monday around 12-14 billion dollars of foreign capital flow in Turkey in 2008.

Turkey’s economy forecasts $12-14 bln in FDI inflows in 2008.

“Turkey forecasts a net foreign capital inflow of $12-14 billion this year,” Simsek told an Anatolian Agency correspondent.

Turkey was planning to draw gross $18 billion of direct foreign capital in 2008. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Turkey has dislodged Spain from its position as favorite British tourist destination, as the overvalued euro has rendered vacations in Spain quite costly, a recent survey has shown.

UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph published the results of the survey, which was conducted by independent travel group Cooperative Travel on 200,000 Britons.

The daily identified the new situation as a “seismic shift” in the way Britons make their bookings and reasoned that this change is a direct result of the economic crisis that began with the US-subprime mortgage market and then spread to Europe and beyond. Britain is one of the countries that have seen the greatest impact from this crisis. The survey revealed that the average cost of a vacation in Spain for a British tourist is 465 pounds whereas it is only 357 pounds in Turkey. The daily noted that Spain had been the most favored destination among Britons since the 1960s. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Foreign Trade Minister Kürşad Tüzmen has said Iraq would become a neighbor with an annual oil revenue of over $250 billion once stability is achieved in the country and that the total trade volume between Turkey and Iraq would reach $30 billion as Iraq becomes normalized.

Trade volume between the two countries in the first six months of this year exceeded $2.2 billion. Turkey is seeking to make this figure $5 billion by the end of the year. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Güler has stated that an American oil company has put in a request with his ministry to perform oil exploration in the Black Sea.

Speaking to the press on Saturday during his visit to İzmir for the opening of the Yuntdağı Wind Energy Power Plant (RES), Güler said Turkey’s oil exploration will begin in the Black Sea in 2009, adding that the aim is to find a good source very quickly as the cost of oil drilling is very high both on land and offshore. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

Turkey’s foreign direct investments (FDI) fell by 45.5 percent to 6 billion dollars in the first five months of 2008 compared to the same period of last year, the Treasury Undersecretariat announced in a statement on Friday.

A total of $649 million of foreign direct investment flowed into Turkey in May, the statement read.

The equity investment inflow component of the international direct investment inflows reached up $5 billion in the same period, with $2.8 billion of this amount flowing into the financial intermediation sector, according to the latest figures.

In the first five months of 2008, 1,239 companies and branch offices with international capital have been established and 280 international capital participations to the existing domestic companies incurred the statement also read.

According to the latest figures, FDI during the January-May term reached $11 billion in Turkey. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

The meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the United States special envoy for Eurasian energy on Caspian natural gas to be sent to Europe via Turkey brought the relations between two countries to a more optimistic point on Friday.

“We had a very positive meeting on energy matters with Mr. Erdogan. Our discussions focused on Caspian natural gas to be sent to Europe via Turkey. The possibility of the Nabucco project going over Turkey came up during our meeting… It was also a constructive meeting and I left… more optimistic than I was at the beginning,” United States Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Boyden Gray said. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

The central government achieved a budget surplus of YTL 1.9 billion in the first half of 2008, the Ministry of Finance announced yesterday in a written statement.

In the first half of the year, the government spent YTL 100.6 billion, whereas it took in YTL 102.5 billion in revenue. In comparison, the first half of 2007 saw the government budget in the red, with a deficit of YTL 5.89 billion. Thus this year’s figure represents a radical improvement in just one year. The main reason for the poor budget performance last year was the government’s increase in public spending on the eve of the July 22 general elections. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

Turkey saw a 31.8 percent increase in the production of vehicles in the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period last year.

According to a statement released by the Automotive Industry Association (OSD) yesterday, 708,962 vehicles were produced between January and June, while 537,955 had been produced in the same period last year.

A total of 113,168 automobiles were produced last month, indicating a 1.6 percent decrease compared with the same month last year. Total production, however, increased by 12.9 percent in the first six months of the year over the same period last year. (more…)