Turkish Press Digest - Oct 9, 2022

Fatih Dönmez, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said, "The decision has been made to double the capacity of TANAP. We will increase the capacity from 16 billion cubic meters to 32 billion cubic meters." [TANAP is the Turkish section of the pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Europe and with its current capacity it was close to impossible for Azerbaijan to provide any more gas to Europe, so this capacity expansion project is crucial for Europe’s energy security – GC] – BloombergHT

DEVA leader Babacan said they have not discussed a specific name as their candidate for President [DEVA is a part of the 6-party alliance that includes CHP, the main opposition party, and IYI Party, among others - GC] – Dünya

The US Supreme Court decided to listen to Halkbank to assess the immunity of foreign-owned companies from criminal investigation [We read the briefs of both Halkbank and the prosecution and we can’t say anything definitive about the actual final decision since we are not constitutional law experts but the court’s decision to at least hear the case did not surprise us because Halkbank’s brief was excellent and the prosecution’s was subpar at best – GC] – BloombergHT

President Erdogan said “When the time comes, we can have a meeting with the President of Syria” – Dünya

President Erdogan had a trilateral meeting with the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia in Prague. He also had a bilateral with the PM of Armenia – Dünya

Turkey and Libya signed a deal involving the exploration of hydrocarbons in Libya’s continental shelf – Dünya

Budget cash balance, which gave a surplus of 28.6 billion TL in August, posted a deficit of 79.3 billion TL in September – BloombergHT

President Erdogan said that interest rates will come down “with each passing day, each week, each month” – Dünya

The national natural gas company BOTAS said that all natural gas storage facilities in Turkey are 100 percent full – Dünya

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance has issued a 2.5 billion dollar sukuk with a 9.75 percent yield – BloombergHT

The export expectation index of the Ministry of Commerce for the fourth quarter of this year decreased by 11 points compared to the previous quarter to 108.1. The data was recorded as the lowest level since the pandemic – BloombergHT

Turkey CPI increased by 83.45 percent YoY – BloombergHT

Turkish Steel Producers Association (TÇÜD) announced that the country's crude steel production decreased by 21 percent on an annual basis to 2.8 million tons in August. In the first 8 months of the year, crude steel production decreased by 8.8 percent to 24.4 million tons. In August, exports of steel products decreased by 31.5 percent to 1.2 billion dollars – BloombergHT

There is a shift in demand for cars whose prices have risen to a level that many people cannot afford. Consumers turned to light commercial vehicles with less tax burden. In September, automobile sales increased by 2.9 percent on an annual basis, while light commercial vehicle sales increased by 26 percent – Dünya

The manufacturing PMI fell from 47.4 to 46.9 in September (below the threshold for 7 consecutive months) – BloombergHT

According to Bank Loans Tendency Survey, banks have tightened the standards they apply to the loans they extend to businesses in general – BloombergHT

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) announced that Turkey's licensed electricity production decreased by 8.3 percent on an annual basis in July and became 27 million 177 thousand 547 megawatt-hours – BloombergHT

Fuel prices were hiked twice this week. With the hikes, the liter of gasoline rose to 20.60 TRY and the liter of diesel increased to 25.61 TRY. Gasoline exceeded 20.00 TRY for the first time since the beginning of September. Diesel also exceeded the level of 25.00 TRY for the first time since September 8th – BloombergHT

Net foreign exchange deficit of non-financial companies recorded as 91,272 million dollars indicating a decrease of USD 7,209 million dollars. This is the lowest level since 2010 – BloombergHT

Participation banks, which still operate within the scope of the Banking Law No. 5411, will be transformed into a new structure under the name of Participation Finance Institutions. There are 18 targets and 84 actions in the Participation Finance Strategy Document (2022-2025) – Dünya

Programming Note: As a result of your feedbacks and our analysis of the data, we decided to separate our macro and markets posts. You can expect to receive our first separate markets post this Thursday and macro post this Sunday.

[We're sorry for the delay in the digest, we were dealing with health issues. Thanks for your understanding]