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Sales have already reportedly increased 30% in June.
State lenders encouraged by the government are providing low-cost consumer loans with a six-month grace period.
“White goods prices may increase between 2.5% to 5% in the coming months. Thus, consumers want to buy products before their prices spike,” Ali Yildiz, head of the Durable and White Goods Retailers’ Association, told the daily.
Yıldız expected the rise in white goods sales to continue in July.
The sales pick-up is not related to home sales or the wedding season but to the cheap loans, acknowledged Mustafa Lacin, chairman of the household goods producer Silverline.
“However, the sales are still around 10% lower compared to the same month of last year. The demand in July and August will be a good indicator as to how the market will perform in the rest of 2020,” Lacin added.
Bulent Gurcan, general manager of consumer electronics retailer Teknosa, confirmed the strong demand in the market.
“In the first 21 days of June, our sales grew nearly 50% from a month ago and we expect this upward trend to continue,” Gurcan said.
9.2 ​Major corporate news 9.2.1​ Transport corporate news
Turkish Airlines saw a sharp 20% y/y decline in the number of passengers it served in January-March​. In March alone, the decline in the passenger tally was 53% on an annual basis, with the effects of the pandemic taking a clear toll.
Turkish Airlines and its budget carrier Anadolujet on July 11 resumed some international flights​ to Germany, Britain and the Netherlands from two airports in Istanbul.
SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkey’s flag carrier and Lufthansa, restarted flights to Germany and Switzerland​.
Turkey resumed domestic flights on June 1​.
On June 15, ​Moody’s Investors Service ​said​ that it had downgraded Turkey’s flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, to B3, six notches below investment grade​, from B2.
Moody’s has not released a rating action on Turkey (B1/Negative) since June 2019, but its comments on Turkish Airlines included some insights on how it sees issues surrounding the revival of economic activities in the country.
The rating agency expects the pandemic to significantly curtail global demand for air travel for an extended period. Moody's also assumes in its ‘faster recovery model’ that Turkish Airlines' 2020 passenger traffic will fall by around 60% y/y. In its ‘slower recovery model’ the drop is anticipated at 70% y/y. The scenarios also project that the airline’s revenues and the demand it encounters will only approach 2019 levels in 2023.
The risk of even more challenging downside scenarios remains high, however,
65​ TURKEY Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com