President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that supermarkets incorporated by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey will reduce the price of 40 basic consumption items today within the scope of the fight against food inflation. “Thus, some other supermarket chains will adjust themselves to these prices,” Erdogan noted.
The periodic financial statements of football clubs and their affiliated companies show that their expenses are exceeding their revenues, and that the fiscal structure continues to produce a profit loss. Although the short-term debts of Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, and Trabzonspor, the four biggest football clubs in the country, have been converted into long-term loans, their debts have increased from TRY 9bn to TRY 11.3bn. While main revenue items have declined for these clubs, their transfer expenditures and other expenses have rapidly increased. These football clubs, which paid TRY 1.7bn in total for football players, technical team, and other staff last year, have already raised their expenditure to over TRY 3bn this year so far.
This week, the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (PPK) will meet to set the policy rate on Thursday. Analysts expect the interest rate to be kept unchanged at 14% considering the latest political statements and previous PPK statements. Moreover, they expect the policy rate to be left at 14% until the end of this year. The PPK is also estimated to emphasize inflation, commodity prices, and the liraization policy in its statement, as it has before.
Regarding the political agenda of the week, the AK Party will celebrate its 21st anniversary under the theme of, ‘We Have Been One and We Have Been 21’. The anniversary celebration, which will be held with the participation of President and AK Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be held in Ankara at the ATO Congresium today. An invitation list of 3,000 people has been prepared, including former parliamentary speakers, ministers, deputies, and party founders. The President is also expected to meet with the party’s 81 provincial heads at the Extended Provincial Presidents meeting.
Today, the cabinet is also expected to meet under the chairmanship of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A Turkish military delegation will visit the U.S. today for talks on the sale of F-16 jets to Turkey. National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar previously announced that a team will hold the third round of bilateral technical talks following up on US President Joe Biden’s pledge to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Turkey
Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu will go to Nevsehir to attend the ongoing commemoration events for Haci Bektas Veli on Wednesday.
DAILY AGENDA
The unemployment rate dropped by 0.4 points to 10.6% in the second quarter, compared to the previous quarter, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The number of paid employees including the manufacturing, construction, trade-services sectors rose by 6.3% from 13.7 million to 14.6 million in June, compared to the same month last year, according to TurkStat.
The Producer Price Index of Agricultural Products (Agriculture-PPI) jumped 157.89% in July, year-over-year, according to TurkStat. Agriculture-PPI increased by 5.0% on a monthly basis.
The Treasury and Finance Ministry will release the central government’s budget balance data for July (11.00 a.m.).
IN OUR MAGAZINE THIS WEEK:
>> On the cover: Tomato processor Merko plans to overcome difficult times with exports as a result of their Frigo Pak purchase made last year. The company bought 25% of Frigo Pak for USD 8.5m in 2021. The purchase will enable the company to export canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, carbonated drinks, fruit juice, and canned citrus. “Exporting 97% of its production, the Frigo Pak acquisition is just the beginning for us. We’ve chosen to grow with exports,” said Alistair Baran Blake, Merko Gida & Frigo Pak Gida Chairman. You can read the details on pages 8-9.
>> Professor Ilter Turan: Is a nuclear war in the making? P. 10.
>> Report: American Podean enters the Turkish e-commerce market. You can read the details on page 11.
>> Chief Economist Gunduz Findikcioglu: A missed opportunity and a genuine comeback. Pp. 12-13.
>> Our Foreign Policy Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli examines ‘the Sochi balance sheet’, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest visit to Sochi, on page 14.
