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world by April 7.
Opposition research shows worrying price movements in an economy roiled by pandemic. Issues both old and new now combining, prompting warnings of possible supply scarcities ahead.
The pandemic now striking hard, the shifting tectonic plates of food nationalism and protectionism as well as inabilities to import required inputs for agricultural production are issues that will brook no more delay.
2.8 Business and consumer confidence surveys
Business confidence among Turkish manufacturers plunged to 66.8 points in April from 99.7 in March.
The capacity utilisation rate (CUR) of industry in Turkey fell to 61.6% in April from 75.3% in March.
2.9 Politics - shorts
The US says it believes that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security was last November directly involved in the killing of an Iranian dissident in Turkey, according to a Reuters report.
Turkey ranks second after Russia in failing to execute judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to the latest annual report of the EU’s Council of Europe.
Erdogan on April 12 rejected the resignation of his interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, who said he would step down after scenes of chaos in Istanbul and other cities broke out after the short-notice imposition of a weekend coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry has launched twin criminal probes against two leading lights of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), namely Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas over fundraising campaigns aimed at raising financial resources to help contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in their municipalities.
Government-run Vakifbank has frozen the Istanbul municipality’s account, where some Turkish lira (TRY) 900mn ($130mn), in raised funds had been
12 TURKEY Country Report May 2020 www.intellinews.com
