International finance

Turkey ran a current account surplus of $95 million in September, contrary to an expected $27 million deficit, marking the second time the country recorded a surplus in the balance of payments since 2009.

The 12-month rolling current account deficit stood at $40.6 billion, or about 5 percent of the GDP.

There is an important economic agenda for the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power again with a quite surprising 49 percent of the vote in the Nov. 1 election. At the center of this agenda is the increase of foreign capital inflow. This requirement is very important both for growth targets and also to be able to rollover the debt burden we are face-to-face with. 

A push by emerging market countries over the last 15 years to borrow a smaller proportion of their debt in foreign currencies should make them less vulnerable to economic shocks, a new report from Moody?s said on Sept. 1.

The Government passed on Wednesday the bill on the establishment of the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets, which will report to the Ministry of Justice.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

May 18 Greece's government should stick to earlier commitments and present reform proposals to help avoid the country becoming insolvent, Germany's central bank warned on Monday.

In its monthly report, written by economists and officials at the bank, the Bundesbank used unusually frank language to describe what it called the «worrying» situation in Greece.

Turkey?s current account deficit rose by $1.58 billion to $4.96 billion in March from the same month of last year, exceeding expectations, according to the balance of payments data released by the Central Bank on May 12.

BELGRADE - The dinar on Monday grew by another 0.3 percent compared to the euro, so the middle exchange rate reached EUR 1 = RSD 120.1681, which is its highest since the start of the year.

?The 2009 local elections? Some unaccredited $4,900,000,000 entered Turkey. The 2010 constitutional referendum... Some unaccredited $5,600,000,000 entered Turkey. The 2011 general elections, some unaccredited $12,200,000,000 entered Turkey. In 2012 and 2013 there are no elections; there were no unaccredited dollar inflows to Turkey. This year we have general elections.

Turkey needs to rebuild trust to attract more investments so as to avoid the middle-income trap, said the World Bank Country Director for Turkey, Martin Raiser.

I will probably end up puking if I read one more overly-optimistic report about the positive impact of lower oil prices on the Turkish economy, and especially Turkey?s current account deficit ? its Achilles? heel.