News Scan, Dec 26th 2013 – Turkish lira falls to record low under political pressure
Turkish lira falls to record low under political pressure
Turkish financial markets have continued to slump on a second consecutive day, despite a promise from the Central Bank to support the lira. The Turkish Lira weakened to 2.14 against the dollar and 2.91 against the Euro, hitting fresh records low under the ongoing political pressure.
The fall comes after the resignation of three Turkish ministers, one of whom called for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan to follow suit. In response to the escalating crisis, Erdogan announced a long-expected cabinet reshuffle and named 10 new ministers — almost half of the cabinet. The renewed political crisis ended a brief reprieve for the lira.
After a Turkish prosecutor said he had been prevented from expanding a corruption investigation that has touched the heart of the government, the lira plummeted down to a fresh record low of 2.14 against the U.S. dollar after starting the day at 2.0914.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
Prosecutor removed from new graft probe amid concerns of cover-up
In yet another blow to an ongoing corruption investigation involving government officials, public prosecutor Muammer Akkaş, who was overseeing one branch of the corruption investigation, was removed from the operation on Thursday. The prosecutor claimed that he had been prevented from performing his duty in the investigation.
Akkaş, who is known for his work on sensitive cases such as the Ergenekon coup plot and the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, was removed from the investigation by Istanbul Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Oktay Erdoğan on the grounds that he had violated the confidentiality of the investigation. Akkaş was leading the investigation that is seen as the second phase of a graft probe that has led to the resignations of three ministers whose sons were detained last week due to their alleged involvement in corruption.
The prosecutor’s removal came only a day after he had ordered the detention of 30 suspects, including a number of deputies and businessmen. The Istanbul Police Department, which has seen an extensive purge of its top officers in the last week, did not comply with the detention order. Following his removal, Akkaş gave copies of a written statement to reporters outside Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse on Thursday. The statement complained about the pressure he had experienced not to pursue the investigation.
TODAYS ZAMAN
Turkey’s call center industry flourishing
Being in close proximity to Europe, providing time zone advantages to companies which outsource some of their operations, and having a large multi-lingual labor pool, Turkey increasingly serves as an international hub for call centers.
Taking advantage of these distinct advantages, Netherlands-based data collection company GDCC has opened an office in Istanbul which will initially have 30 seats to conduct market and opinion based research in German, French and Dutch languages. The company plans to add Turkish and other European languages and expand the capacity to 75 seats at a later date.
Turkey’s call center industry employs 70,000 people, according to the Chairman of the Call Centers Association of Turkey, Metin Tarakci. “Among these, some 2,000 call center employees specifically service European customers.”, Tarakci said, adding that the sector had reached a volume of USD 1.4 billion. Last September, a Swiss company announced plans to open a 200-seat call center in Diyarbakir in Southeastern Anatolia to serve its clients in Switzerland’s insurance sector. Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia, best supported regions in the country’s investment incentive scheme, currently host nearly half of the 1,000 call centers in operation in Turkey.
INVEST.GOV.TR
Turkey’s stake in TANAP raised to 30 pct
Turkey’s share in the strategic Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), slated to carry Azeri gas to Turkey and European markets, is to rise to 30 percent, according to the head of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company and the main stakeholder of the multi-billion dollar project.
Originally holding 20 percent stakes, Turkey had requested increased shares in the project during Energy Minister Taner Yildiz’s visit to Azerbaijan to attend the signing ceremony of the final investment decision to develop the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea, the main source to feed TANAP. SOCAR currently has an 80 percent interest.
French oil company Total and Norwegian Statoil have reportedly opted out despite initially agreeing to acquire a total 20 percent stakes of the project. British oil giant BP remains partner to TANAP, having agreed to acquire 12 percent shares from SOCAR. With its construction set to start in 2014, the pipeline will span across Turkey, from the Azeri border in the east to the Greek border to the west, carrying 16 billion cubic meters of gas by 2018. TANAP will link with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to carry gas to European customers.
INVEST.GOV.TR
Annual FDI inflow into Turkey to reach USD 80 billion by 2023 – ISPAT President
Turkey’s enormous accomplishments in the last decade are evident in the amount of foreign direct investments (FDI) that the country attracts, according to Ilker Ayci, President of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) and the Vice-President of World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA).
“Turkey’s rapid economic development brought in an influx of foreign investments. In the last decade, our GDP has increased more than triple fold to USD 786 billion up from USD 231 billion while exports reached USD 153 billion up from USD 36 billion. Obviously, foreign investors took note of Turkey’s consistent growth and full integration to the global economy.”, ISPAT President said, highlighting the fact that the country has received USD 123 billion of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the said period.
“FDI into Turkey, averaging around USD 1 billion a year between the 1993-2002 period, clearly skyrocketed in the last decade, amounting to USD 12 billion on annual average.Turkey aims to be among the world’s top 10 economies until 2023 by having a GDP of USD 2 trillion. This target calls for an export volume of USD 500 billion and a per capita of USD 25,000. The yearly FDI amount that Turkey receives by then will reach USD 80 billion, constituting 4 percent of the projected GDP.”, the ISPAT President noted.
MEDIA
2014 to be toughest year for Turkish banks: Garanti CEO
A tough year lies ahead for Turkish lenders because of the challenges expected to erupt with the U.S. Fed’s plan to taper its stimulus plan and macroeconomic conditions in the country, the CEO of Garanti Bank has said.
“I think 2014 will be hardest of the past 10 years for banking sector,” Garanti CEO Ergun Özen has told Anadolu Agency in a wide-ranging interview yesterday. Özen said there were two main structural worries ahead of the economy: repercussions from the uncertainty arising from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary exit strategy and reflections of measures taken for balancing growth components into banks’ balance sheets.
Regarding the potential impacts of Fed’s decision, Özen said he expected its impact to be limited, dependent on the U.S. Central Bank’s success in routing interest rates expectations through forward guidance strategy.
He said interest rates were already in compliance with inflation forecasts thanks to the Turkish Central Bank’s policies, which have prioritized inflation targets.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
Main opposition leader criticizes jurisdiction-execution crisis
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the crisis between the jurisdiction and execution that emerged during the ongoing corruption operation in Turkey.
“The Council of State should act immediately. Either we will give up on the separation of powers, which is the de facto situation right now, or a decision should strengthen the hands of prosecutors and the crisis is solved,” Kılıçdaroğlu said during an interview on CNNTürk on the night of Dec. 25.
The statement came amid reports that a conflict between the jurisdiction and the police, which have seen a major reshuffle of hundreds of chiefs and officers being replaced after a corruption investigation, including two ministers’ sons and a state-owned bank manager.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
Top legal body says judicial police regulation against Constitution
Turkey’s top judicial body has harshly criticized a new judicial police regulation, saying that it is in violation of the Turkish Constitution. The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) said in a statement on Thursday that state institutions and executive offices must act in line with the principle of equality before the law in all of their activities, adding that an independent judiciary is a guarantee for citizens against rulers. The statement noted that the judicial check on rulers for their illegal activities is an essential part of a democratic nation and a state of rule of law.
The HSYK said a regulation that asks police chiefs to notify civil administrative chiefs who have no judicial position about investigations ordered by prosecutors is an open violation of principles of independence of the judiciary and checks and balances as well as openly violating the Turkish Constitution and relevant laws of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK).
In an overnight change to police procedure for judicial investigations last week, the government stifled prosecutorial independence by requiring police officers to report to their superiors in all investigations. In the current probe into corruption and bribery, that would have forced the police to inform the interior minister that they were investigating his son.
TODAYS ZAMAN
26.12.2013
This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
