Economy of Turkey

Leading mobile operator in Turkey Turkcell has decided to establish a consumer financing company with a capital ceiling of up to 500 million Turkish Liras ($171.5 million), it said in a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform on Aug. 27.

My latest column, in which I argued that the Turkish Lira would continue to slide until the Central Bank intervened with a significant interest rate hike, may have seemed pessimistic. But compared to a report and article that I read over the weekend, it is actually optimistic.

Investors have been leaving Turkey for the last couple of months, pushing the lira, which plunged from 2.75 to around 2.9 in 10 days into the ground There has been an acceleration in foreign investors' exit from the Turkish market after coalition options failed, conflicts escalated in southeastern Anatolia and both the United States and Germany decided to remove their Patriot missiles fr

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey reached $6.3 billion in the first half of the year, the Turkish Economy Ministry said in a statement on Aug. 21.
      
FDI decreased by 9.6 percent compared with the $7 billion invested in the same period last year, the statement said.
      

Turkey's defense industry received $11 billion in orders in 2014, according to a report by the Defense Industry Manufacturers Association (SaSaD) on Aug. 21.

The sector has achieved an average annual growth rate of 21 percent for the last five years. 

After hitting 3 for the first time ever in the early hours of Aug. 20, the Turkish Lira-dollar exchange rate recovered somewhat during the day. Several readers have asked me if the lira?s slide would continue. Well? yes and no.

Food prices will increase in the coming months, as it is not possible for agricultural producers to endure such a huge loss in the Turkish Lira, said a sector representative, adding his company?s maximum lira-U.S. dollar parity projection for this year was 2.7 before the election. 

The precipitous fall in the value of the Turkish Lira does not portend a crisis in Turkey, a key advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said on Aug. 19.

Cemil Ertem?s remarks came a day after the lira again hit record lows against the dollar after the Turkish Central Bank announced that it was holding interest rates at current levels.

The Central Bank held interest rates steady on Aug. 18 after a drop in food and energy prices eased inflationary pressures, maintaining a cautious stance with one eye on political tensions that have driven the Turkish Lira to record lows. 

Turkey?s Limak ?n?aat announced it won a tender to build the new terminal in the Kuwait International Airport for $4.34 billion in a written statement on Aug. 18. 

The company, the construction unit of Limak Holding, said the bid of 1.31 billion dinars ($4.34 billion) was approved by the Kuwait Central Tenders Committee (CTC).