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74 I Southeast Europe bne February 2022
certificate proving that they have been fully vaccinated with one or two doses no more than six months ago or if
they have recovered from coronavirus within the past six months. They will be obliged to also present a negative test for coronavirus along with the certificate.
Albania reported a record 1,236 cases on January 5, only to surpass that level with an increase to 1,648 on January 6.
A total of 3,829 people tested positive for coronavirus in Slovenia on January 6, an increase of 124% on the same day a week ago, data from the National Institute of Public Health shows.
550 people are being treated in hospitals, 161 of them in intensive care. The youngest patient in an intensive care unit is just 21 years old. Five more people died of COVID-19 on January 5.
The National Institute of Public Health estimates that there are currently 25,752 active cases in the country. The number of confirmed cases per 100,000 population in the last 14 days is 1,213, and the average number of confirmed cases in the last seven days is 2,361, according to National Institute data.
Additional reporting from Eldar Dizdarevic in Sarajevo.
Erdogan follows latest ‘unbelievable’ rate cut with 50% boost to Turkey’s minimum wage
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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on December 16 piled on the pain for Turks suffering from the collapse of the Turkish lira with another rate cut before offering some relief with the announcement that the minimum wage would be lifted by 50% to maintain its US dollar value.
Analysts, however, were quick to serve warning that the minimum wage increase to Turkish lira (TRY) 4,250 ($271) from 2022 would further drive up rampant inflation. Marek Drimal at Societe Generale, for instance, said it would “fuel inflation pressures further, together with the cumulative impact of the lira’s weakness”.
The dollar value of the 2021 minimum wage of TRY 2,825 per month has sunk to $185 from $380 since the start of the year in line with the halving of the value of the lira. And there are fears that hyperinflation has set in in Turkey. Though official inflation is running
at 21%, independent analysis led by Turkish academics at ENAG calculates that it has reached at least 60% and continues to shoot up.
Usual defiant self
Erdogan, widely seen as running Turkey’s monetary policy from the palace, was his usual defiant self after waving through a 100 bp cut – to add to
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400 bp of cuts made since September – in the central bank’s policy rate to 14%, announcing the improved minimum wage and promising unspecified measures to ensure lira stability in the coming days. The latest rate cut in the face of surging inflation sent the TRY to yet another all-time low against the USD
Erdogan has asserted that he is fighting an “economic war of independence”
to boost domestic industry and ensure Turkey cannot be bashed by the global markets, but the country is hugely reliant on foreign capital, thus analysts generally see him as pursuing a crazy economic experiment, bidding to build short-term
“Analysts were quick to serve warning that the minimum wage increase to Turkish lira (TRY) 4,250 ($271) from 2022 would further drive
up rampant inflation"
– it fell towards 6% to TRY 15.748 – but Erdogan vowed to take on the currency markets, decrying that Turkey’s destiny would not be determined by the level of borrowing costs or by foreign exchange speculators.
He also declared: "With this increase [in the minimum wage], I believe
that we have demonstrated our determination to protect our employees from being crushed in the face of price increases."
The government, added Erdogan, would also lift taxes on the minimum wage to ease burdens on employers.
popularity with a credit-fuelled economy ahead of elections that must be held by June 2023. The central bank has signalled that it may now pause monetary easing until at least the second quarter but with the mercurial strongman in charge no-one can really know where policy goes from here.
'Expected, but still unbelievable'
Ahead of the rate cut, the markets were crying out for a change of course, but were resigned to the latest decrease being pursued nonetheless. The
rate cut was "as expected, but still unbelievable," John Hardy, head of FX strategy at Saxo Bank, commented.