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Turkish pasta and rice are included in discounted food packets that the Maduro regime delivers to citizens each month.
However, Turkish state-run Ziraat Bank closed its account with the Venezuelan central bank in August after additional US sanctions were directed at Venezuela. The bank was seen as playing a crucial role for Venezuela in making payments to contractors and on behalf of importers.
Turkey is Hungary’s strategic partner when it comes to security and the issue of migration, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after official talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Budapest on November 7.
The Turkish leader repeated his threat to let refugees come to Europe.
Hungary was the only country in the EU not to condemn Turkey's military offensive against the Kurdish militia.
Hungarian officials have said they expect to draw natural gas from Russia's TurkStream pipeline by the end of 2021 - a key way for the country to diversify transit routes for its energy supplies.
Orban and Erdogan said they would aim to boost bilateral trade from €3.1bn to €6bn.
The first Xi'an-Ankara-Prague train, which passes through the territory of Kazakhstan, arrived in Turkey on November 6, KTZ’s press service reported. Kazakhstan and Turkey along with Azerbaijan and Georgia launched a multimodal Trans-Caspian corridor, creating the shortest exit for cargo flows from China, Central Asia, Russia’s Siberian region to Turkey and the Mediterranean.
Former Kyrgyz consul-general in Istanbul, Erkin Sopokov, was detained on November 28 in Bishkek after his car was found near the site where Aierken Saimait (aka Ayerken Saymaiti), a businessman from China's Xinjiang province, was shot dead in the city earlier in November, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. His detention came two weeks after he was fired from his job by President Sooronbai Jeenbekov. Saimait whose name was cited in an investigative report by RFE/RL about the illegal withdrawal of some $700mn from Kyrgyzstan, was murdered on November 10 in Istanbul.
3.0 Macro Economy
Main Macro Indicators
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
GDP Growth (y/y)
8.5
5.2
6.1
3.2
7.5
2.8
-2.3
-1.6
0.9
-
GDP (per capita, $)
12,395
12,022
10,915
10,817
10,537
9,346
-
-
-
-
GDP (current prices, TRYbn)
1,810
2,044
2,339
2,609
3,111
3,724
922
1,024
1,145
-
GDP (current prices, $bn)
950
934
859
863
852
766
172
175
202
-
CPI (%, eop) (latest: Nov)
7.4
8.2
8.8
8.5
11.9
20.3
19.7
15.7
9.3
10.6
Population (mn)
76.7
77.7
78.7
79.8
80.8
82.0
-
-
-
-
Unemployment (%, eop, Aug)
9.0
9.9
10.3
10.9
10.9
11.0
14.1
13.0
14.0
-
CA Balance ($bn)
-63.6
-43.6
-32.1
-33.1
-47.3
-27.0
-1.66
-1.07
6.42
-
Budget Balance (TRYbn, Oct)
-18.5
-22.7
-23.5
-29.9
-47.8
-72.6
-36.16
-42.4
-7.2
-14.9
source: imf, tuik, treasury, central bank
22 TURKEY Country Report December 2019 www.intellinews.com
