While we were busy with the other important agendas of the week, daily coronavirus cases in Turkey have exceeded 30,000 threshold and reached nearly 40,000. After Monday’s cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that provinces in the red category (58 provinces) will have full weekend lockdowns and businesses like restaurants and caffes will only be open for takeaway services as of April 12, the start of holy month of Ramadan. As the short-time working allowance ends today, Erdogan also announced a new type of support for the employees of the sector. Those who are on unpaid leave, thus can’t benefit from insurance premium support will be paid TRY 1,500 in cash per employee. The decision involving 120,000 businesses received criticism from the sector representatives that the support will not be enough.
“Tradespeople will spend another Ramadan bitterly,” said Bendevi Palandoken, President of the Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK). “They are out at the heels. They continuously borrow. Resources should be created in order for them to survive. We want to see that out government is with us. We thank for the support provided so far, however it’s not enough,” he said.
Among these it is hard to believe that economic confidence index reached 98.9 points, the highest level in three years, especially in an environment where unemployment increases and incomes are reduced. This does not feel like spring at all!
Looking at the other developments in the economy, the duration of withholding tax advantage on TRY deposits implemented in October 2020 in order to increase TRY savings has extended to May 31, 2021 with a Presidential Decree published in the Official Gazette. The withholding tax on TRY bank deposits of up to one year was cut to 3% from 12%, the tax on deposits of up to 6 months was cut to 5% from 15% and the tax on deposits of more than one year was zeroized from 10%.
On the other hand, USD/TRY, which fell to 8.25 after seeing 8.40 yesterday morning, further declined to 8.15. EUR/TRY is traded at 9.59. In the meantime, spot gold, which dropped to USD 1,677 yesterday is traded at USD 1,718 today. Brent crude rose to USD 63.98 per barrel this morning before OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting.
DAILY AGENDA
Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (ICI manufacturing PMI) increased from 51.7 to 52.6 in March.
Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICOC) will announce wholesale and retail prices. The ICOC’s wholesale prices stood at 1.48% on monthly basis and reached 14.45% on yearly basis for the previous month.
The Central Bank and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) will release weekly money and banking statistics (2.30 pm).
