Even if daily coronavirus figures started to decline compared to the previous week, the numbers are still high. In the last 24 hours, 55,149 people are infected, and 341 people lost their lives. The death toll unfortunately broke a new record. In the meantime, the number of total cases reached 4,323,596 in the country while global cases exceeded 141.8 million. This figure carries Turkey to seventh place with highest number of cases after the U.S., India, Brazil, France, Russia and the UK, respectively, according to John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
On the other hand, the number of people vaccinated against the COVID-19 including first and second doses draws near 20.2 million in the country, according to the Ministry of Health.
Moreover, as of yesterday, the country has entered new phase of COVID-19 vaccination as those 55 years of age and older have begun to be vaccinated. “We will press ahead with our vaccination campaign depending on supply conditions,” said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. More than 26 million CoronaVac vaccines have been supplied, while the country plans to bring 30 million BioNTech vaccines in June.
Yet, the vaccination works against the COVID-19 haven’t reached the desired level in the country due to some citizens’ rejection and avoidance. Health Ministry is working on programs to convince these people while MPs seek for a solution at the parliament level. The increasing number of cases raise rumors on further measures as well. The period between April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, which is a public holiday and May 17, including the weekend after the Eid Ramadan, said to be evaluated for full closures. However, we will never know until President makes a statement on it…
At least we know some about how the money market looks today. USD/TRY is traded at 8.10, while EUR/TRY appreciates at 9.77. Generally, a weak outlook is dominant on the foreign exchange (FX) rates and the stock exchange market although the country’s 5-year CDS (Credit Default Swap) has declined. Accordingly, the week started with sales on Borsa Istanbul (BIST) led by the banking sector. The BIST Banks Index fell to 1,082 points yesterday and slightly increased to 1,098 points today. Alongside of internal dynamics, weakening of risk appetite in global markets and successive book building period in new initial public offerings (IPO) are considered to be effective on sales.
DAILY AGENDA
The Ministry of Treasury and Finance will reopen the 4-year (1,624 days) maturity semiannually fixed coupon bond and the 7-year (2,401 days) maturity semiannually floating rate note. The Treasury borrowed some TRY 5.1bn through two auctions held yesterday.
