Author: Alaattin Aktas (Alaattin Aktas)

The previous year’s death statistics are usually announced in June. This year, the death statistics of 2020 were awaited with even more anticipation. The general opinion was that the COVID-19 deaths would reflect on the statistics and that it would be possible to see the Ministry of Health data, which was sometimes doubted. This would...

From 2003 to 2020, a total of 18 years. During this period, the consumer price index (CPI) increased above 1% once in August 2018. That increase was 2.30%. The reason for it is quite simple, the infamous priest crisis. The dollar gaining 21% against the lira in August and allowing the exchange rate to skyrocket...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s stance on interest rates is clear. Erdogan is always against high-interest rates. He claims that a high-interest rate is an important cost element and that inflation always rises because of it. President Erdogan reiterated his stance on interest rates and prices in a TV program last week and this time he...

The Turkish economy will perform a little better in the second quarter of the year. The gross domestic product (GDP), which contracted by 10.3% to USD 385bn in the same period of last year from USD 429bn in 2019, seems like it will increase by around 25% to USD 480bn in the second quarter of...

Let’s start with a quite simple question: What would you consider if you wanted to make a portfolio investment in another country as an investor? The answers are obvious, aren’t they? First, you would examine whether the return of the security to be invested in is good. As you attempt to invest in foreign countries...

The establishment of a Price Stability Committee had already been declared in the economic reform package announced in mid-March. It was officially founded last week. But there are still questions sticking in minds: – We have a Central Bank that is responsible for ensuring price stability and has this provision in its law. They say...

I don’t know as Europe’s cheapest country is strengthening. Don’t take it the wrong way, this cheapness is not for the people living here and earning their pay in lira, it’s for those who spend Euros and dollars. The European Statistics Office’s purchasing power parity data was announced last week by the Turkish Statistical Institute....

I’m talking about foreign investors, the ones who invest in Turkey through stocks and government debt securities. They seem to be conflicted. They neither want to make huge amounts of investment, nor they want to leave Turkey for good. Data from the last seven weeks signal a serious stagnation. Foreigners bought a total of USD...

WHAT DOES THIS GROWTH MEAN?  Answers to this question may differ from person to person. But a common answer would probably be like this: “This growth is nothing but replacing what’s lost, although not exactly.” Take a look at this period that’s we’ve been experiencing for over a year now: People have lost their assets,...

The doubts about Turkey, especially among foreign investors, cannot be removed with the surprise dismissal of Central Bank Governor Naci Agbal, and the replacement of Sahap Kavcioglu immediately after the Central Bank raised the interest rate at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on March 18. A rush out of Turkish markets, which started with this...