The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) benchmark interest rate was raised by 0.5 percentage points to a target rate range of between 0.75% and 1%. The Fed also announced that it will start reducing its balance sheet by June.
Turkish companies that manufacture composites for various sectors such as aviation, automotive, energy, and defense industries convened at JEC World, a global event for the composite materials industry, held on May 3-5 in Paris. The composites industry is among the leading sectors that will increase Turkey’s competitiveness in international trade, according to Sekib Avdagic, Chairman of the Board of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO). “Composite is the material of tomorrow and the value-added created by the composites sector is quite important for our national industry,” the ITO Chairman said. Stressing that Turkey’s composites exports totaled USD 160-180m last year, Avdagic added: “180 medium and large-scaled enterprises operate in the composites sector in Turkey and the figure reaches 800 with those companies that partially carry out their composite business here. Together these companies employ around 13,000 people. The Turkish composite materials market, which has a size of EUR 1.62bn, has a volume of 300,000 tons.”
Turkey is preparing a new project that will allow the voluntary return of 1 million Syrian refugees to their country, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We will carry out this project soon with the support of national and international non-governmental organizations,” Erdogan said at the inauguration ceremony of newly built houses in Idlib, in northern Syria. Since Turkey launched its cross-border anti-terror operations in 2016, around 500,000 people have returned to safe zones in northern Syria, the president added. He also underlined that over 57,000 houses for around 50,000 families have so far been built in the Idlib area.
Turkish and Armenian envoys for the normalization of ties between the two countries reaffirmed their goal of ‘achieving full normalization’, according to a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “The special representatives reaffirmed the declared goal of achieving full normalization between their respective countries through this process,” the ministry said, following the third meeting of Turkish and Armenian envoys in the Austrian capital, Vienna. The envoys discussed possible steps that can be taken for a tangible progress of normalization, the statement added. Turkey’s Ambassador Serdar Kilic and Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ruben Rubinyan reiterated their commitment to continue the process without preconditions, the statement read.
A pilot scheme will be implemented for the ‘Digital TRY System Development Project’ which is carried out by the Central Bank in collaboration with software and defense companies HAVELSAN, ASELSAN, and the Informatics and Information Security Research Center of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK BILGEM). As part of the first phase of the project, the ‘Digital TRY Network’ will be created and narrow scope and closed-circuit tests will be performed.
DAILY AGENDA
Annual inflation reached 69.97%, and monthly inflation surged by 7.25% in April, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Thus, annual inflation hit a 20-year high.
The domestic producer price index (D-PPI) jumped 121.82% in April year-over year, according to TurkStat. The D-PPI rose by 7.67% on a monthly basis.
Trade Minister Mehmet Mus will announce foreign trade statistics for April (11.30 am).
IN OUR MAGAZINE THIS WEEK:
>> On the cover: Giorgio Marrapodi, Italian Ambassador to Ankara is on our cover this week. 93% of Italian companies see Turkey as a strategic production base for exporting to different regions such as the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Africa, according to Marrapodi. You can read the details on pages 8-9.
>> Professor Ilter Turan says on page 10 that a new approach to the Armenian genocide is needed.
>> Report: Sun Tekstil to launch two overseas design offices. You can read the details of an exclusive interview prepared by our Managing Editor Handan Sema Ceylan on page 11.
>> Chief Economist Gunduz Findikcioglu: Modelling the future. Pp. 12-13.
>> What will happen with the ECtHR after Gezi decision? Our Foreign Policy Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli answers this question on page 14.
Meanwhile…
The number of foreign tourists who visited Antalya between January 1-April 30 jumped 162% from 423,773 to 1.12 million year-over-year, according to the Antalya Directorate of Culture and Tourism.
Retail prices jumped 79.97% and wholesale prices climbed by 73.21% in Istanbul in April, year-over-year, according to the ITO. The monthly surge in retail prices and wholesale prices was 11.36% and 5.33%, respectively, in April in the city.
>> Some 1,132 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours by the Health Ministry.