Back to Business

First of all, I would like to thank the ones who have always asked me to write more in this blog. It was a really busy period for me but now the lectures have begun in my university, many things are becoming raoutines. So it is now time to enlarge the information pile in the blog :)

The Demise of Dollar

Dollar has been going up and down for the last recent months. However the latest news do not bring good news for US economics. The secret negotiations between Arabic states and France, Russia and China indicates that there will be a new currency -consisting of Yen, Euro and Gold- in the marker which determines the petrolueum prices.

"Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars." (The Independent)

Freud&Consumerism: Century of self-4

Ali G with an economist

By the way, sorry about the delay of the latest post of the series.

Country on focus series..

Hi all!

The new post of the effects of the economic crisis series will be here soon. Keep following..

Freud&Consumerism: The century of the self-3

Country on focus: Turkey-Part 1

Being an important economical dynamic in Middle E ast and South-East Europe, Turkey has severely feeling the effects of the sub-prime mortgage crises followed by the global crisis. Due to the fact that Turkey is a newly industrialized country -despite overcoming may of its properties- its economics heavily depends on the stable global economics. Turkish lira (TL) has lost 25% of its value since Jan. 2008. In addition, it saw the deepest point on the 5th of March 2009: 1 $ = 1.79 TL. It has been a while since the TL has been suppressed by the Central Bank of Turkey(CBT). During the times of crisis CBT provides liquidity and preserves the markets to avoid the atmosphere of panic. However the Turkish economy couldn't stand along anymore. The "Mayday" from General Motor (GM) has shaken the world markets and the current situation has added up many negative pressure for a country like Turkey whose market's two-third is circulated by foreign capital.

The industry's capacity has decreased with a rate of sharp 22.9% in March. The effects are still green for the automobile industry-known as the second biggest industry in Turkey after textile. Thousands of workers has been laid off from the factories located in the capital of car industry, Bursa. This depression in the car industry also affected the growing rates for the first quarter.

Turkey is a partially globalized country. Thus this gives several advantages like protection in short term. In addition the Turkish executives are highly experienced in crisis management. (remember the 1999&2001 crisis) However the question is: are those factors enough to avoid the effects of the global crisis in wide range in the real sector in Turkey.

According to the expectations of IMF and EU commission, Turkish economy will lose value of 5.9% during the year 2009 and the inflation will be around 6.8%. These numbers, however, not always reflect the truth. If one takes a look at the commodity prices like natural gas, electricity and water it can be directly marked that these are in a trend of increase up to 40% in average. The price of natural gas has increased 72.6% via 4 stages by the beginning of Feb. 2009. Later on there occured several cuts in the price -18% in industrial and %17 commercial- , but those were never enough to compensate the unstoppable rises.

The unemployment rate of 16% is a serious fact to be considered. Hosting a very young population (40% of 78 mil.) Turkey will suffer from these rates. the 40% decrease in the export volume. 

The numbers sometimes seem to be fuzzy, but definately not in the case of Turkey. They are strictly pointing the direction of economics problems.