Nihat Zeybekci

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducted the Umrah while in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Erdoğan visited the al-Masjid an-Nabawi, a religious site that includes Prophet Muhammad's grave in Medina. 

Erdoğan subsequently traveled to Mecca, where he visited the Masjid al-Haram late on Feb. 15.  

Russia and Turkey are set to discuss the possibility of easing the visa regime for certain categories of Turkish citizens, particularly businessmen, a senior Russian diplomat stated.

Turkey's agricultural sector will see a considerable and positive transformation after the country's Customs Union deal with the European Union is updated, said Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci. 

The sector will be the most challenging one in a profound update of the Customs Union based on their impact analyses, he said.

The Central Bank has many instruments to counter "speculative" moves around the struggling Turkish Lira and its hands are not bound by political pressure, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci claimed on Jan. 13. 

Turkey's embattled lira took a new pounding on Jan. 11 on foreign exchange markets as emergency measures announced by the Central Bank failed to impress markets.

The Turkish Lira has lost almost 10 percent in value against the U.S. dollar since the start of this year alone, falling to 3.84 to the greenback, having earlier reached a new historic low of 3.89.

A number of limits in Turkey's bilateral visa and trade transactions with Russia still remain in place, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said, adding that this makes the Turkish side "uncomfortable."

Turkey's inflation rate rose more than expected in December mainly due to hikes in prices of tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, a data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Jan. 3. 

The annual inflation rate rose to 8.53 percent in December from 7 percent in November. 

Ethiopia and Turkey signed five cooperation agreements in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Dec. 28, setting out mechanisms to facilitate more trade between the two countries.        

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci and heads of Ethiopian agencies signed the agreements.        

The modernization of the Customs Union deal with the European Union will increase Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2 percent by 2030 in the best-case scenario, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said, as reported by state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Zeybekci said the ministry conducted impact assessment analyses on four different alternatives. 

Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines were named Turkey's top service exporters, followed by Çalık Energy, in a competition by the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TİM) in coordination with the Economy Ministry late on Dec. 24 in an award ceremony. There were two other Turkish carriers in the top 10 list too.