Page 4 - TURKRptSept19

1.0 Executive summary
“Erdogan Plays Washington Like a Fiddle”: Foreign Policy
US offer to sell Patriot missile defence system to Turkey “off the table” following start of S-400 deployment.
Syrian army advances in northwest Syria putting Turkish troops in firing line.
Erdogan says Turkey wants to continue defence industry cooperation with Russia after visit with Putin to inspect aircraft at aviation show.
Russia’s Sberbank to provide $400mn loan for construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power station Akkuyu.
Garbage discovery shows Turkey held urgent talks with Moscow over connecting to Russian alternative to SWIFT.
‘EM hunt switches from yield to safety' as Ankara readies for new political, economic phase.
Turkish assets sliding as Erdogan regime’s grip on events weakens.
Erdogan replaced the pro-Kurdish mayors of three cities in Turkey’s south east—namely Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin—with state officials.
Istanbul’s new opposition mayor scraps transfer of 350mn lira to pro-Erdogan foundations.
“Turkey’s Presidential Regime Rests on Zero Rule of Law”
“Erdogan would not relinquish power without a fight regardless of consequences for Turkey”
Erdogan is now de facto at the wheel when it comes to Turkey's monetary policy and he's in no mood to budge.
Official inflation hops up to 16.65% but that’s not enough to blow Erdogan’s plan off course.
Poll anticipates Sept 3 release of Turkish inflation data will show annual rate slipping to 15.5%.
Natural gas prices hiked by another 15% effective as of September after a 15% hike effective as of August 1.
“Turkish central bank playing with fire”
Turkish lira rose and rose to test 5.45 against USD on August 8 but dollarisation rates show Turks not yet buying into recovery.
The Turkish lira was in July the best performing of the world’s most-traded currencies against the dollar but Turks have proven right again after it hit the 5.75 on August 20.
In the first week of August, CitiGroup, Societe General and Deutsche Bank issued “Buy Lira” reports a few days before the recent depreciation in Turkish lira. Also on August 7, Bloomberg reported that “Local investors have stopped accumulating foreign currency”. Turks are familiar with such headlines by Erdogan media.
Turkish lira in 12% plunge against yen.
Lira over 5.80 after hitting 6.40 for a few minutes on the Asia market opening
4 TURKEY Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com