President Tayyip Erdogan said the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (PPK) will continue to cut the policy rate and bring it down to single digits by the end of the year. Speaking in a televised interview with broadcaster CNN Turk and Kanal D in Ankara, President Erdogan stated that Turkey aims to strengthen the TRY by reducing interest rates. He also said that the interest rate will also reduce inflation.
The monthly food expenditure required for a healthy, balanced, and sufficient diet for a family consisting of four people (hunger limit) amounted to TRY 7,245 in September, according to a survey conducted by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS). Thus, the figure, which is up by 5.75% month-over-month and 130% year-over-year, exceeded the minimum wage by TRY 1,745. In addition to food expenditures, the amount needed to secure the necessities of life, such as housing (electricity, water, heating, etc.), clothing, transportation, education, health, etc. (poverty line) totaled TRY 23,600. The monthly cost of living for a single employee rose to TRY 9,469.
Turkish bank’s decision to stop using the Russian payment system Mir has been taken under unprecedented pressure by the U.S., according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He said Moscow and Ankara need to jointly look for ways to counter this pressure so that it does not harm bilateral trade and economic cooperation and not deprive millions of Russian tourists who visit Turkey every year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the latest developments regarding the Russia-Ukraine war over the phone, according to a statement from the Communications Directorate. President Erdogan told Zelenskyy that a deal for Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant could be reached with Turkish mediation between Kyiv and Moscow, just like the Istanbul grain deal.
The Pentagon called on Turkey and Greece to engage in dialogue to ease tensions in the Aegean Sea. “Greece and Turkey are both very important NATO allies. We would encourage both sides to continue to engage in constructive dialogue to ease potential tensions,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder said at a press conference. Ankara previously summoned the Greek ambassador and submitted complaints to Washington after accusing Greece of deploying U.S. armored vehicles on two Aegean islands near the Turkish coast.
DAILY AGENDA
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) will release the Economic Confidence Index for September (10.00 AM).
Meanwhile…
>> The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) upgraded Turkey’s economic growth forecast from 2% to 4.5% following a stronger than expected domestic demand and a moderate recovery in exports. However, the EBRD pointed out that Turkey has fundamental vulnerabilities created by rapid TRY devaluation and high inflation and that it has important concerns over Turkey’s increasing current account deficit, USD 180bn in short-term external debt, and weakening reserves hovering around USD 15bn.
>> The Taiwan-based motorcycle manufacturer KYMCO, which is represented by Dogan Trend Otomotive in Turkey, has started to evaluate the possibility of setting up an assembly plant in Turkey, according to Chun-Ping Ko, CEO of KYMCO.
>> The World Bank will provide USD 512.2m in financing to Turkey to expand access to housing and infrastructure that is resilient to climate and natural hazards, according to a statement from the Bank. USD 338.5m of the financing will be used for developing new, affordable financing mechanisms to enable households to retrofit or reconstruct their housing to increase resilience to seismic and climate hazards. The remaining USD 173.6m will be used by ILBANK to provide financing to municipalities to build more resilient infrastructure.
>> The total size of the mobility market has reached USD 60bn in Turkey, according to daily DUNYA.
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