Important data will be released this week. On Tuesday, we’ll learn about the current account balance of the Turkish economy and the construction cost index for November. The economy posted a considerable surplus in October. We may see another surplus, according to our Week Ahead Columnist Dr. Bader Arslan. However, the current account surplus is far below expectations, as imports are rapidly increasing even as FX rises. Construction costs have also been skyrocketing since late 2020. The annual increase in costs exceeded 40% in the fall of 2021. This rise is expected to continue.
On Thursday morning, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) will announce the industrial production, retail, and turnover indices for November. We are likely to see a rise in all three indices. Our export performance lies at the heart of the vitality of industrial production. However, this rise was not driven just by foreign demand – domestic demand was also high in November. On the retail and turnover indices, we have seen positive results as households tended to buy ahead before prices increased. This is because domestic demand has not cooled down but inflation has started to accelerate. Big discounts by e-commerce companies were also put into place in November.
As a publication, we’ve got a major update: our weekly global economy, finance, and business magazine TR MONITOR will only be published digitally as of this week. Our readers will be able to access a lot more news daily through our website, www.trmonitor.net. Our suscribers will also receive a printed, detailed report covering developments across Turkish sectors at the start of each month. In the next few days and weeks, we’ll send out more communications about these changes. However, we hope you’re all excited to be on this digital transformation journey with us.
DAILY AGENDA
The unemployment rate remained steady at 11.2% in November compared to October, according to TurkStat. The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over increased by 39,000 to 3.7 million in the same period.
The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) Turkey Manufacturing Export Climate Index fell from 54.9 points to 53.9 points in December, compared to the previous month.
The Ministry of Treasury and Finance will release the central government’s domestic debt statistics for December (5.30 pm).
IN OUR MAGAZINE THIS WEEK:
>> On the cover: Jacob Benbunan, CEO and Founder of Saffron Brand Consultants, which undertook the rebranding for Facebook into Meta, is on our cover this week. Benbunan says Facebook’s transition into Meta will allow companies to be players in the metaverse with a public business model based on advertising. You can read the details on pages 8-9.
>> Professor Ilter Turan: Emergency steps are unlikely to be successful. P. 10.
>> Q&A: Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, President of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). P. 11.
>> Our Chief Economist Gunduz Findikcioglu examines ‘the psychology of Turkish investors’ on pages 12-13.
>> Zeynep Gurcanli: What will Turkey’s January foreign policy hold? P. 14.
