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Turkish Economy - News & Updates

What is the driving force behind Turkish Economic problem?

  • The on going Trump attack on Turkish Economy

    Votes: 29 19.9%
  • Jewish Agenda to weaken adjacent countries to Israel

    Votes: 36 24.7%
  • Internal Turkish economic problems

    Votes: 50 34.2%
  • Falling Exports for Turkey

    Votes: 5 3.4%
  • Loss of Tourism income for Turkey

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • External Loans or Debt impacting Economy

    Votes: 25 17.1%

  • Total voters
    146
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US Credit Rating Institution Moodys upgrated Turkey's sovereign rating from BA1 to BAA3.
Acoording to that grade Turkish state bonds qualified as low risk investiable category. Higher ratings degree means lower interests to be paid in formal bo
rrowing in global financial markets.

The first driver underlying Moody's decision to upgrade Turkey's sovereign rating to Baa3 is the improvement in the country's economic and fiscal metrics. Since the beginning of 2009, Turkey's debt burden has fallen by 10 percentage points to a manageable 36% of GDP, and Moody's expects this decline to continue in the coming years. Moreover, Turkey's ability to finance its outstanding stock of debt is supported by the relatively low and decreasing share of its debt that is denominated in foreign currency (it has fallen from 46.3% in 2003 to 27.4% in 2012). The maturity profile of the central government's debt stock has also lengthened significantly to 4.6 years (and the maturity of its foreign debt stock is now over 9 years), which reduces its vulnerability to interest-rate increases. Furthermore, the government's revenue streams have demonstrated resilience in recent years. For example, even in the face of contraction in real GDP growth by 4.8% in 2009, general government revenues increased by over two percentage points in that year and have remained on an upward trajectory since that time. These improvements, when considered in conjunction with the size, wealth, and diversification of the domestic economy, increase the sovereign's ability to withstand a crystallisation of balance of payment risks over the short to medium term.
 
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Ankara, Washington on road to establish a free trade agreement

Turkey and the US appear to take fairly solid steps on the road to establish a free trade agreement. “Turkish PM Erdoğan and US President Obama agreed to begin efforts for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the US and Turkey,” US Vice President Joe Biden said on May 16 during Erdoğan’s visit to Washington.

The European Union and US have already agreed to establish the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as Turkey has been increasingly pushing to get involved in the talks. The Customs Union agreement that was signed in 1996 between the EU and Turkey is the reason behind Ankara’s urging, as the union deal enables third parties that the EU has lifted trade barriers with to enjoy free trade with Turkey as well, but leaves the choice of providing the same condition for Turkey to their own initiative. Turkey has been pushing the conditions through two branches: it is seeking either a separate and parallel free trade agreement with the U.S., or is calling on the EU to reconsider the terms of the deal.

Biden announced that Erdoğan and Obama agreed to work toward a FTA, and said, “We will not only keep Turkey informed of every step of the negotiation with the EU, but we believe that if in fact, we can get by some of the divisions and the differences we have with regard to free trade agreements, that if we can get there before the time we settle the EU new trade agreement, that it will be a great opportunity for Turkey.” Meanwhile a committee will be dealing with the economic issues regarding both parties.

ECONOMICS - Ankara, Washington on road to establish a free trade agreement
 
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Turkey totals 45.4 billion TL in defense contracts

The value of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries’ (SSM) contracted projects reached 45.4 billion Turkish Liras in the last five years, an 85 percent increase. Of the 310 standing projects in 2012, 180 of them are bound by contract.

The same value was 24.5 billion liras in 2008, then increasing 85 percent in five years to 45.4 billion liras. While 53 percent of the total was made by local-foreign partners, 27 percent of the total figure was made by local producers. And 11 percent of the total constitutes the imports from abroad.

SSM’s biggest project is the $16 billion Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which is followed by $3.3 billion Turkish Attack (ATAK) helicopter and 2 billion-euro New Submarine project.

Turkey’s security and aviation industry revenue is planned to reach $8 billion, with $2 billion in exports, by 2016, SSM officials said.
 
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Azeris, Spaniards ink $4.8 billion Turkish refinery deal

Turkey is set to receive a new refinery after Azerbaijan’s Socar and a Spanish-led group ink a multibillion-dollar deal to build the facility on İzmir’s Petkim peninsula on the Aegean coast

Socar Turkey and a consortium led by Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas signed an agreement yesterday to build “Star Refinery,” worth $4.3 billion in the western province of İzmir.

Socar Turkey, which was founded by Azeri state-run energy company Socar to carry out its activities in Turkey in 2008, had begun infrastructure and excavation work for Star Refinery in the Aliağa district of İzmir after the groundbreaking ceremony attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Azeri President İlham Aliyev in October 2011.

The value of the agreement signed between Socar Turkey and a consortium of Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, Italy’s Saipem, South Korea’s GS Engineering and Construction and Japan’s Itochu is $3.4 billion, said Socar Turkey CEO Kenan Yavuz, adding that they had invested $185 million using their equity capital so far for the refinery’s infrastructure and completed 70 percent of infrastructure work.

“When we add the infrastructure investments worth $185 million, the future expenditures for electric and automation systems, others and taxes, the investment value aside from the financing costs will be worth $4.3 billion,” Yavuz said. The estimated value of the refinery, including financing costs and interest, is between $4.8 billion and $5 billion, he added. Yavuz said Star Refinery was a localization project that would enable a $2.5 billion reduction in Turkey’s current account deficit yearly.
Currently Turkey’s sole refinery is Tüpraş.

Value-Site vision

“As Socar plans to invest $17 billion in Turkey by 2018, around $7 billion to $8 billion of this amount will be used for Star Refinery, which will be a chemical industry park on Petkim Peninsula in framework of the ‘Value-Site’ vision,” said Vagif Aliyev, the head of Socar’s International Investment Management Department and also the CEO of Petkim, Turkey’s state-run petrochemical company, which is owned by Socar. The Value-Site vision aims to integrate refinery, petrochemical, energy and logistics on the Petkim site in order to complete production, which begins from crude oil and ends with the final product, in the framework of a cluster model.

Aliyev said the strategic partnership between Turkey and Azerbaijan, which gained speed with the privatization of Petkim in 2008, would be enforced by Star Refinery and the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (TANAP). Turkey has a 20 percent stake in TANAP, while Socar holds 80 percent.

Construction of the TANAP pipeline, which will be built from the Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey’s border with Europe, is expected to start at the end of 2013 and the project’s first phase is estimated to be ready by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

TANAP is set to take some 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field to Europe, while Turkey, which aims to cut its dependence on Russian gas, will get six bcm. BP and Azerbaijan’s Statoil hold 25.5 percent of shares each in the Shah Deniz II as Socar, Total, LukAgip Nioc and Turkey TPAO share the rest.

10 million ton capacity

Star Refinery is planned to have an annual capacity of 10 million tons to refine different crude oil types.

The refinery is planned to produce annually 4,900,000 tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel, 1,300,000 tons of naphtha, 457,000 tons of mixed xylene, 1,630,000 tons of jet fuel, 260,000 tons of LPG, 525,000 tons of reformat, 692,000 tons of petroleum coke and 159,000 tons of sulfur.

Yavuz said they had put in $8 billion of equity capital for Star Refinery as they would borrow $3 billion from foreign banks to finance the project. “We came to the final phase of the negotiations with export import banks of Spain, Italy, South Korea and Japan, which have been continuing for two years,” Yavuz said. UniCredit has been their corporate solution partner since the beginning of the process, he added.

Moody’s recent rating upgrade for Turkey, which lifted the country’s grade to “investable,” will have positive impacts on Socar’s foreign finance seeking, Yavuz noted.

Yavuz said the project, in partnership between Socar Turkey and the consortium, would be completed 51 months from today. “We will complete the refinery’s mechanical works by the 43rd month, start-up works between the 43rd and 48th months and performance tests between 48th and 51st months. Star Refinery will be completed and come into operation after 51 months,” he said.

BUSINESS - Azeris, Spaniards ink $4.8 billion Turkish refinery deal
 
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Value-Site vision

“As Socar plans to invest $17 billion in Turkey by 2018, around $7 billion to $8 billion of this amount will be used for Star Refinery, which will be a chemical industry park on Petkim Peninsula in framework of the ‘Value-Site’ vision,” said Vagif Aliyev [/url]


Woow! 17 Billions Green Sam Uncle!. Mashallah great money and great investment for 5 years...congrats..!!
more stability in politic mean, more developmnet in economic...and then tens billions$ of foreigners stream into Turkey for directly investment...Turkey missed 20.century due to unstable, interim coalition govenrments and Millitary coups..

PETKIM was a state ownered company once and was leading and bigest company in petro-Chemaical industry ...Later governmnet privatized her 51% share for 2.050 Bllions$ and Azeri Soccar won the tender in 2007...When PETKİM had being privatized many conservative economists was crying and blaming government for treachery.. after privatization completed it begun to jump in growing and investment...
 
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Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) upgrades Turkey’s ratings by two notches

Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) today upgraded its ratings on Turkey by two notches from BB to BBB, saying the outlook of the rating was stable.

JCR’s upgrading of Turkey to investment grade comes shortly after Moody’s Investor Services upgraded Turkey’s government bond ratings by one notch to Baa3 from Ba1, and also assigned a stable outlook to Turkey on May 16.

The JCR and Moody’s decisions are in line with Fitch Ratings, which put Turkey at investment grade BBB-minus with a stable outlook in November. Standard & Poor’s rates Turkey one notch below investment grade at BB-plus, with a stable outlook.

JCR mentioned Turkey’s economic success in the face of the adverse international economic environment coming from the Lehman collapse and the European sovereign debt crisis.

“The improvement on macroeconomic issues has been significant in recent years thanks to the innovative policy measures taken. So are some of the concrete steps for the structural issues, albeit small. The country’s foreign exchange liquidity risk itself is decreasing as the European debt crisis finds its way out. Hence, JCR has upgraded Turkey’s long-term issuer ratings to BBB-. The outlook of the rating is stable,” the JCR press statement stated today.

According to the statement, there is no notable vulnerability in Turkey’s financial system. In addition, it noted that Turkey’s exports to Middle Eastern and African countries were steadily increasing, the first nuclear power plant construction had been commissioned, and laws for the promotion of private pension schemes had been enacted.

The main problems of the Turkish economy are stated as the abatement of the current account deficit, which has tended to worsen with economic growth; control of the growth of domestic credit and foreign exchange fluctuations against speculative international capital flows; and disinflation against years of inflationary pressure.

May/23/2013
 
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Eyes on S&P as OECD says time for Turkey credit upgrade

gurria.jpg

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Jose Angel Gurria (Photo: EPA, Yoan Valat)
23 May 2013/ERGİN HAVA, LEIPZIG

It should be only a matter of time before Ankara secures a new investment-grade rating given the current level of interest and expectations in markets, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria told Today's Zaman in an exclusive interview on Wednesday in Germany's Leipzig, describing the possible upgrade as “a well-deserved success.”

Gurria's comments came just one day ahead of news that the Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) became the third agency that upgraded Turkey's credit rating to investment grade.

Moody's Investors Service last Thursday upgraded the Turkish economy to Baa3, or investment grade -- the second agency to do so after a similar upgrade by rater Fitch in November. Standard & Poor's, meanwhile, rates Turkey at just a notch below investment grade.

S&P is slated to hold a major seminar on Turkey's conference on June 4.

"The markets have already started pricing it [anticipated news of a new investment grade rating for Turkey]. I see a third investment grade must follow the first two before the end of this year. ...Turkey is a valuable member for the OECD and we are proud to observe the progress they have made,” he explained, underlining that the country has done a “remarkable job in minimizing impacts from global fluctuations.” Moody's report on Turkey last week said reforms gave the EU candidate a better footing for handling external shocks.

Gurria was speaking on the sidelines of the OECD's International Transport Forum, which kicked off on Wednesday and will run through May 24.

Moody's move has led to excitement over new foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Turkey because many of the world's largest institutional funds require a country to be considered investment-worthy by at least two rating agencies before they invest. However Gurria's early “congratulations" to Turkey may sound, observers have earlier said the pressure is now on S&P to follow its rivals, and the OECD head agrees: "These things tend to happen in waves. ... The current level of interest already shows a new upgrade is at hand. Turkey is then going to attract more resources available both in terms of supply and also the cost. ... This is good news.”

Gurria's statements on Wednesday arrive in the face of comments by Turkish government sources who said that “Moody's decision is as correct as it is late.” As the OECD secretary-general asserted that the investment grades by two agencies will encourage FDI to Turkey, he said the foreign investors will tend to park their cash in Turkey for longer terms should the necessary state guarantees and low interest rates for loans be provided.

Also referring to the slowdown in the Turkish economy, Gurria said he predicted Turkey to grow by 5 percent this year over 2013, a figure one percent higher than the government estimates.
 
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I don't trust these rating agencies. It seems to me that they also rate according to their own interests.
I mean to still give the cradle of the crisis USA The best possible rating seems to me like bs.
The rating of the Netherlands still the best possible, but unemployment has surpassed turkey. The public debt is sky high currently.

And then not to mention the bs downgrading of turkeys rating last year.
 
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Canada's Dominion Bond Rating Service upgrades Turkey's rating

23 May 2013

Turkish Deputy PM Babacan: "The upgradings of Moody's, JCR and DBRS are the confirmation of the success of our economic policies"

Canada's international credit rating agency Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) has upgraded Turkey's long-term foreign currency credit rating to BBB, investment grade.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said, "The upgradings of Moody's last week, JCR's and DBRS's are the confirmation of the success of our economic policies."

Babacan stated that "Turkey's strong economy, positive growth expectation, stable public finances, positive debt indicators and powerful and deepening financial system" have become effective on the upgrading decision of the agency.


@olcayto these rating, even if bs, are very important for international giant investors:

the world's largest institutional funds require a country to be considered investment-worthy by at least two rating agencies before they invest.
 
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@Ir.Tab.

I know they are important, but that doesn't change the fact that the ratings are occasionally utter bs.
 
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@Ir.Tab.

I know they are important, but that doesn't change the fact that the ratings are occasionally utter bs.
They are bs,but investments only come thanks to these ratings.
Either we like it or not,they have a big influence on investments.
The higher the rate the cheaper the loan if we need any for new projects.
And we have alot of new projects.
 
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Turkey’s largest photovoltaic module manufacturing plant commissioned

China Sunergy Co. (CSUN), in partnership with Turkish Seul Enerji, has commissioned Turkey’s largest photovoltaic (PV) module and cell production plant in the Tuzla district of the country’s economic capital, Istanbul.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, said that Turkey was intent on utilizing its clean energy sources, solar being one of the most abundant.

“Power generation using solar resources is taking off globally. Turkey supports the photovoltaic industry by offering premium rates in its feed-in tariff for the users of locally manufactured equipment” the Minister said, adding that the CSUN Eurasia Solar Production Facility will be supplying the Turkish, Chinese and the EU markets.

Currently only solar modules are being produced at the factory with cell production scheduled to start in the coming months. The plant will have a production capacity of 300 MW, according to CSUN Enerji Yatirim CEO, Egemen Seymen, who said that CSUN was aiming to export to European markets.

Turkey
 
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Hyundai Assan ready to double its production

HYUNDAI - Reuters

Hyundai Assan, a joint venture owned by South Korean automotive manufacturer Hyundai and Turkey’s Kibar Holding, announced it is almost ready to realize its target of increasing its automotive production to at least 200,000 units from 100,000 in its İzmit plant near Istanbul, according to a press release by the company on May 24.*

In the framework investment plan of over $1 billion, the company had announced last year it would double its production in the coming years. The company officials have lately said that they are almost ready to realize their plan, less than a year after they had first announced it. Hyundai Assan will launch the production line for the new i10 model for both European and Turkish markets, adding around 800 direct new jobs soon, thus reaching 6,300 employees in total.
May/25/2013

BUSINESS - Hyundai Assan ready to double its production
 
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Istanbul up to sixth hottest global tourist spot
Istanbul saw the highest increase in visitor numbers in Europe last year. It is expected to host 10.4 million tourists in 2013 and earn $8.6 billion in tourism income, a MasterCard index says
Istanbul is expected to welcome 10.4 million tourists this year, a figure that would put it sixth in a global list of destination hotspots, according to a report released by MasterCard.

Istanbul is this year’s number six out of 132 for travel, and its tourism income is expected to rise to $8.6 billion this year – a 5.5 percent increase from a year earlier, according to MasterCard’s third annual Global Destination Cities Index.

Bangkok, London, Paris, Singapore and New York were the top five cities ahead of Istanbul. London ranks first in Europe in international visitor arrivals, followed by Paris, Istanbul, Barcelona and Milan. Istanbul, however, has seen the highest increase in visitor arrivals in Europe, the study said. If the city continues to grow amid a decline by the French capital, Istanbul will surpass Paris in terms of international visitor arrivals by 2016.

With its tourism income of $8.6 billion, Istanbul is set to be fourth in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of its intake from visitors.

London top feeder of Istanbul

Istanbul’s top five feeder cities are all European cities, with London on top, followed by Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich. The number of visitors from London is expected to reach 458,000 – a 2 percent increase – bringing income of $393 million. The number of arrivals from Paris is expected to rise to 409,000, a 10.9 percent increase, in 2013, followed by 295,000 from Munich (a 3.7 percent increase) and 319,000 from Amsterdam (a 3.4 percent increase). The number of visitors from Frankfurt, however, is expected to decline to 316,000 in 2013, a 5.3 percent decrease, the study said.

The top destination city by international visitor arrivals in 2013 is Bangkok, which managed to surpass London by a very slim margin. The success also makes the Thai capital the first Asian city to top the index since the survey was launched in 2010.

A noticeable trend in this year’s report was the dominance of the Asia/Pacific region. Of the 132 cities included, 42 are Asian cities. Bangkok is followed by Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo in terms of Asian destinations.
 
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