Author: Anadolu Agency

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is “very impressed” with the tight monetary policy stance Türkiye implemented to bring inflation down, Alfred Kammer, director of the European Department at the IMF, said Thursday. Kammer said the financial agency has been “very favorably impressed” by the monetary policy pivot in Türkiye since last year. He added that there are two main results of the policy change — vulnerability to a crisis risk that has been greatly reduced over this time, and inflation now on a downward trajectory. “Those are two huge achievements in this policy pivot that took place when it comes…

In recent years, two major attempts were made by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) to overthrow the Turkish government, once in December 2013 and again in an attempted coup on July 15, 2016, costing 252 lives and injuring 2,734 others. The losses incurred during and after these two plots have come back into the spotlight after the confirmed death of the organization’s U.S.-based ringleader, Fetullah Gülen, last week in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Besides the tragic loss of life, they resulted in heavy financial damages as well — more than $500 billion, data compiled by Anadolu suggests. Even before…

McDonald’s shares nosedived Wednesday as an E. coli outbreak is tied to the firm’s quarter pounders. The multinational fast food chain’s stock price was trading at $298.31 at 1.37 p.m. EDT (1737GMT) for a daily loss of 5.24% after closing Tuesday at $314.81. A total of 49 people from 10 U.S. states have gotten sick from the same strain of E. coli, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday. One older person in the state of Colorado has died, and a child was hospitalized with complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to the CDC. “Everyone interviewed…

Starbucks reported on Wednesday that its global sales fell 7% in July-September-the coffee chain’s third consecutive quarter of decline. Starbucks’ global comparable store sales fell 7% in July-September and 2% for the full fiscal year, accounting for the 52-week period ending Sept. 29. The company’s earnings per share fell 25% compared to the same period last year to 80 cents. Its consolidated net revenues declined 3% to $9.1 billion. The coffee chain suspended its annual forecast for the next fiscal year as its new CEO, Brian Niccol, said Starbucks needs a “fundamental change.” “The lower-than-expected performance for the full fiscal…

Türkiye’s consumer confidence index went up by 3% to 80.6 in October, from 78.2 in September, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday. Among sub-indexes, the financial situation expectation of household over the next 12 months index posted the highest rise with 6.1% month-on-month in October. It was followed by an assessment of spending money on durable goods and general economic situation expectation, both over the next 12 months, with 4.1% and 1.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, the financial situation of household at present sub-index saw a monthly decline of 0.2%. The consumer confidence index, which can hover between 0 and…

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, recorded a profit of $76.4 billion in the third quarter of 2024, the fund announced on Tuesday. The fund’s total return for the third quarter was 4.4%, just 0.1 percentage points below the benchmark index set by the Norwegian Finance Ministry, which is based on the FTSE Global All Cap and Bloomberg Barclays indices. Trond Grande, deputy CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees the fund, credited the strong performance to gains across all investment sectors, driven by falling interest rates that spurred a significant rise in equity markets. The…

Türkiye aims to increase installed wind and solar capacity to 120,000 megawatts (MW) by 2035, requiring nearly $80 billion investment, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Monday. By 2035, Türkiye will “quadruple” its current capacity of 30,000 MW, he said during the Energy Transformation-Renewable Energy 2035 meeting in Istanbul, bringing together key players in the energy sector. “We believe that by working together with stakeholders, financial institutions and investors, we can achieve our goal of investing $80 billion in renewable energy,” Bayraktar added. In order to add 90,000 MW to the existing capacity, he said that…

Türkiye is slowly reining in inflation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday, adding that now is the time to make progress on structural reforms. He stressed that the country is prioritizing saving awareness in all expenditures except for earthquake spending, speaking in Istanbul at the 51st General Assembly of the Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries. Last year, twin devastating earthquakes hit 11 provinces in Türkiye, causing thousands of deaths as well as huge economic losses. Türkiye’s annual inflation rate was at 49.38% in September, its lowest level since July 2023. Erdoğan also said the Turkish Central Bank’s reserves…

Türkiye’s trade volume with Japan, one of its target countries for increased exports, rose 49% in 2019-2023 from $4.1 billion to $6.1 billion, as Türkiye aims to boost its exports to Japan via its current strategy. Türkiye’s exports to Japan between 2019 and 2023 rose from $503 million to $645 million, according to official figures compiled by Anadolu. Türkiye’s goal is to reach $10 billion in bilateral trade volume with Japan in the short term. The average amount of foreign direct investments (FDI) from Japan to Türkiye in 2002-2023 reached $152 million. Last year alone, approximately $3.5 million was invested…

Türkiye and Serbia will work harder to make sure cooperation between the two countries’ business communities reaches its full potential, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday. “We have significant potential in health, energy, information and communication technology. We should reap more benefit from these areas. It will be in the interest of both countries to take important steps together, especially in the defense industry,” Erdoğan told a news conference alongside his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic at a Türkiye-Serbia Business Forum in the capital Belgrade. Erdoğan, before concluding his one-day visit to Serbia, said he believes “it is very…