Call to Action for High Technology in the 2nd Century of Turkey – a new report by

TUSIAD and TUBISAD

The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) and the Informatics Industry

Association (TUBISAD), published recently their joint report ‘Call to Action for High

Technology in the 2nd Century of Turkey’. The report, which was supported by Deloitte

Digital in terms of the content, includes the steps for all leverages to provide Turkey high

technology breakthroughs, from the development of innovative policies to financial

support, from infrastructure to competent human resources, focusing on 18 Action Calls

towards actions that are considered important to be taken.

Mr. Orhan Turan, President of TUSIAD mentioned during the event presenting the

report held on April 13, 2023: “The economy of the future is shaped by technology and

digitalization. We should be prepared for the economy of tomorrow while the competition

rules are rewritten. As TUSIAD, we have made technology and digitalization one of the

important pillars of our work.” TUBISAD President Mr. Levent Kiziltan added that

“Digitalization and transition to the digital economy should be a race for Turkey that we

must run wisely in the international arena. They ‘re also should be a strategic journey in

which we’ll proceed with many stakeholders,”

Read more here

Here’s the report (in Turkish)

Central Bank of Turkiye announcements

Turkey’s current account balance posted a USD 4.5bn deficit in March, according to

the Central Bank. The current account deficit amounted to USD 8.8bn in February and

USD 5.6bn in March 2022. The country’s gold-and energy-excluded current account

posted a surplus of USD 1.4bn in March. The goods deficit totaled USD 6.3bn, while

services saw a net surplus of USD 3.1bn in the same month. Foreign direct

investments recorded a net inflow of USD 238m versus the portfolio outflow of USD

1bn in this period. Official reserves were down by USD 264m. Turkey’s current account

deficit soared from USD 17.8bn to USD 23.6bn year-over-year, in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank’s international net reserves rose by USD 419m from

USD 6.36bn to USD 6.78bn in the week ending on May 5, compared to the previous

week. The bank’s total reserves drooped by USD 752m to USD 114.13m in the same

period.

Source: TRMonitor

Further decrease in inflation rate

The y-o-y consumer inflation further declined to 43.68% in April 2023. The consumer

price index increased by 2.39% as compared to the previous month, by 15.21% as

compared to December 2022 and by 67.20% on the twelve-months moving average

basis.

In April, the highest annual price increase was recorded in health (+66.62%), hotels,

cafes and restaurants (+66.41%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+53.92%) and

furnishings and household equipment (+48.40%). The lowest annual price was observed

in clothing and footwear (+13.82%), transportation (+25.56%) and communication

(+36.38%).

The highest monthly price increase was observed in communication (+5.93%), hotels,

cafes and restaurants (+4.24%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+3.95%) and

clothing and footwear (+3.82%). Meanwhile, monthly price decrease was observed in

housing (-1.47%).

Core inflation, which excludes volatile items (i.e. energy, food and non-alcoholic

beverages, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and gold), has slightly decreased from 47.36%

to 45.48% between March and April 2023.

Annual food inflation dropped from 67.89% to 53.97% over the same time frame, but

monthly prices increased by 3.95%. Energy inflation also fell significantly in the context

of the favourable course of global price movements, while also supported domestically

by an administrative 15% cut in household electricity tariffs applied in April. Annual

energy inflation dropped further from 35.66% in March 2023 to 21.19% in April 2023,

and monthly energy prices decreased by 3.86%.

Public sector wages hikes

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced this week a 45% wage hike for 700,000 public workers, raising the minimum monthly public worker wage to TRY 15,000. Erdogan stated that Turkey will continue to work on minimum wage hikes for civil servants and hiking pensions.

"In July, we have preparations based on the inflation difference and welfare share," he added.

Poverty rate at 14,4% of the population in 2022

Turkey’s poverty rate remained unchanged at 14.4% in 2022, compared to the previous year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). Although it didn’t change annually, it was above the level recorded in 2017, when it dropped to 13.5%. The poverty rate of 14.4% corresponded to 12 million people. The poverty rate was below the average in Istanbul at 10.8%, while the region with the highest poverty rate was Adana- Mersin at 15%, and regions with relatively lowest poverty rate were Gaziantep, Adiyaman, and Kilis at 3.7% last year. The country’s persistent at-risk-of-poverty rate rose to 14.0% in 2022, hitting a 5-year high. Turkey’s severe material deprivation rate increased by 1 point to 28.4% in the same period.

Read more here