Turkey, which has conducted extensive diplomacy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, will now host the fifth round of peace talks. The Russian and Ukrainian negotiation teams are convene in Istanbul for talks to be held through the 30th. The Kremlin stated that the negotiations to be held in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations are important as the two countries decided to continue face-to-face. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Serbian press that he hoped face-to-face negotiations to be held in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine would result in success.
Turkey will have difficulty reducing inflation without significantly raising the interest rate, according to Prof. Dr. Kennet Rogoff, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund. Speaking in an exclusive interview with daily DUNYA, Rogoff said to control inflation will be quite ‘painful’ for Turkey after it damaged its credibility by not increasing the interest rate earlier and repeatedly dismissing Central Bank managers. He also noted that a possible recession in Turkey’s largest trade partners – Ukraine and Russia – will adversely affect export revenues and the current account balance and could pave the way for a significant economic slowdown.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced following a Cabinet meeting that value-added tax (VAT) has been reduced to 8% for basic necessities such as medical devices, diapers, detergent, and soap, as well as for food and beverages.
The U.S.-based S&P Global downgraded the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecasts of Turkey from 3.7% to 2.4% for 2022 and from 3.1% to 2.9% for 2023. The outlook has been increased from 3.0% to 3.3% for 2024.
DAILY AGENDA
The Services Producer Price Index (S-PPI) jumped 78.09% in February, compared to the same month last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). The S-PPI rose by 3.78% in February on a monthly basis.
The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) will release collective data for the banking sector for February (2.00 pm). The profit of the sector amounted to TRY 9.2bn in January.
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