Happy Republic Day!
October 29 is a public holiday commemorating the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk declared that Turkey was henceforth a republic. Turkey had de facto been a republic since April 23, 1920, the date of the establishment of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, but the official confirmation of this fact came three-and-a-half years later. On this day in 1923, the status of the nation was declared as republic the official name of the country as Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (the Republic of Turkey). After that, a vote was held in the Grand National Assembly, and Ataturk was elected as the first president of the young republic.
Domestic markets will be closed due to the official holiday. Looking at the foreign exchange transactions abroad, USD/TRY is traded at 9.60, while EUR/TRY sees 11.21 this morning.
The Central Bank (CB) revised up its year-end inflation forecasts for the next three years while keeping its medium-term target constant at 5% in its fourth inflation report. The annual inflation rate is projected to reach 18.4% by the end of 2021, up from its previous forecast of 14.1%. The revision was mainly driven by higher import costs and food prices, according to the CB Governor Sahap Kavcioglu. The bank also raised its forecast for food inflation to 23.4% for 2021 and 13.9% for the next year. The bank’s year-end inflation forecast for the next year was revised to 11.8%, up from 7.8%, and the inflation is expected to hit 7% by the end of 2023 before stabilizing at 5% in the medium term.
The current account deficit is key to tackling price stability and a weak TRY, according to Kavcioglu. He said the bank cut its policy interest rate recently because inflation pressures were temporary, and he teed up more cuts in the next two months and would evaluate how much room it has for easing.
>> The U.S National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he expects a meeting between the U.S. President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Glasgow, but it has not been confirmed yet. Both leaders will attend the World Leaders Summit at the start of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP26, on Monday. In the meantime, President Erdogan is set to go to Italy and the UK to attend the G20 Leaders and COP26 climate summit.
>> Turkey hosted 17.6 million foreign visitors from January to September, up 86% from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
>> Turkey’s benchmark stock index closed the shortened transaction week at 1,522.04 points on October 28, up 0.18% from the previous close.
>> Some 25,528 new coronavirus cases and 229 deaths due to the COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours by the Health Ministry. So far over 116.02 million coronavirus vaccine jabs have been administered. More than 55.3 million people have received their first doses, while around 48.5 million are fully vaccinated. More than 11.1 million people have been given booster shots.
