What a week it has been! The government had a remarkably busy agenda this week in terms of international meetings. Taking a peek, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel on Tuesday. Minister of Treasury and Finance Lutfi Elvan and the Central Bank Governer Sahap Kavcioglu attended the G-20 Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday. Finally, President Erdogan, attended the 10th Summit of Developing-8 (D-8) Organization yesterday.
During the 10th Summit of D-8 hosted by Bangladesh, the bloc adopted the D-8 Decennial Roadmap for 2020-2030 and the Dhaka Declaration 2021.
With the roadmap, the bloc aims to become stronger and more developed and support the implementation of relevant strategies and action programs to help achieve the 2030 sustainability agenda set by the UN. It also aims to design concrete project plans for each area of cooperation for achieving sectoral goals.
In the Dhaka declaration, the member countries reiterated commitments made in earlier summits “to peace, democracy, progress, dialogue, solidarity, partnership as well as tolerance and moderation as the core values and foundation for achieving economic prosperity and well-being of our peoples.”
The D-8 is an organization for development cooperation among Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan. The cooperation idea among major Muslim developing countries was initially mooted by Former Prime Minister Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan during a Seminar on ‘Cooperation in Development’ held in Istanbul in October 1996, while representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan attended the Seminar. This conference was the first step towards the establishment of D-8 and it was only after a series of preparatory meetings that D-8 was set up officially and began its activities with the Istanbul Declaration issued at the end of the summit of Heads of State and Government held in Istanbul on 15 June 1997. The headquarter of D-8 is located in Istanbul…
Considering the week in terms of money market, USD/TRY has stood at 8.10-8.15 during the week despite the upward or downward fluctuations, which slightly increases this morning. USD/TRY is traded at 8.16, while EUR/TRY appreciates at just above 9.70.
Gold prices generally declined with the impact of increasing optimism about rapid recover in China’s producer price index. Spot gold saw USD 1,746 per ounce in the markets.
While investors are considered the impact of the COVID-19 on fuel demand and supply increase of major oil producers, oil prices recorded a limited change. Brent crude fell to USD 63.08 per barrel, while U.S. crude oil rose by 0.2% to USD 59.70.
DAILY AGENDA
The Central Bank released the results of Inflation Expectation Survey. The year-end inflation expectation rose to 13.12% from 11.54%.
Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released the Foreign Trade Indices. Accordingly, the overall export volume index increased by 2.6% while the overall import volume index decreased by 0.7% in February, compared to the same month of the previous year. On the other hand, the overall export unit value index increased by 6.9% and the overall import unit value index by 10.3% in this period.
