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8.4.2 Fixed income - govt funding plans
Due to the central bank’s backdoor tightening measures, domestic government bond yields are also on the rise, although it is hard to call the market for these bonds “a market” due to systematic interventions made since November 2018. The latest took the form of an asset ratio imposed on local banks. Despite tightening steps, the asset ratio remains in effect with a limited downgrade.
9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Turkey’s natural gas imports from Iran and Russia declined by 44.8% y/y and 41.5% y/y, respectively, in the first half of this year, according to Energy Market Regulatory Board data compiled by state-run news service Anadolu Agency.
The key factor was growing imports of cheaper liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the expense of piped gas. Turkey’s pipeline gas imports fell by 22.8% while LNG imports grew 44.8% in the first half of the year.
Turkey’s natural gas imports in H1 overall dropped by 3.5% to 22.5bn cubic metres (bcm). Of this, the country imported 12.1 bcm via pipeline and 10.3 bcm as LNG.
Turkey purchased 2.02bcm of gas from Iran with no imports between April and June while imports from Russia declined to 4.7bcm.
The country imported its highest amount of gas, at 5.44 bcm, in the first half of this year from Azerbaijan. The volume marked a 23.4% increase compared to the same period of 2019.
Turkey, under its long-term LNG contract with Algeria, imported its highest LNG volume at 2.99 bcm in the six months.
However, the highest spot LNG volume imported by Turkey came from Qatar at 2.85bcm. That marked a 124% y/y increase.
49 TURKEY Country Report September 2020 www.intellinews.com
