Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Member Oğuzhan A. Sadıkoğlu reported that the Turkish Trade Center (TTM) was opened by TOBB in Chicago, United States, with the support of the Ministry of Trade and the contributions of chamber-exchanges. Sadıkoğlu stated that TTM, which is intended to help industrialists and traders from Turkey with the principle of “one-stop-office” in everything from the establishment of companies in the USA to after-sales services, has the feature of being the first 'Turkish Trade Center' opened abroad by TOBB.

Within the scope of the meeting agenda, information about the economic outlook of the world and Turkey was first presented by Ahmet Çimoğlu, Economic Research Coordinator of Koç Holding. With the news of the vaccine, he said that the markets have made a good start to 2021 and that despite the decline in commodity prices over the last week, the rising figures are creating concern about inflation in the coming period. He stated that foreigners purchased a net $1.9 million from the stock market in the period November 6-January 15. The Central Bank's gross foreign currency reserves rose by about $7.7 billion to $90.1 billion during that period (November 13-January 15), while foreign currency reserves decreased by $4.5 billion after December 25. In general, he stated that the perception to Turkey is positive and this situation appears to be from the Eurobond issuances of banks.

Afterwards, TÜRKBESD’s Ayşe Keskinkılıçi provided information about the 2020 data. In 6 large items, January-December 2020 consolidated domestic sales increased by 16.5% compared to the same period last year, while in December the increase was 30% compared to the same month last year. She shared with the participants that consolidated exports in January-December 2020 were completed on a quantity basis at about the same level as last year (+0.5%-> 21.97 million units). She said that the increase in December was 37% compared to the same month last year, and that the declines in April and May, especially in the last quarter, were balanced with the recovery in the last quarter and general closures in export markets.

The other agenda item, Murat Kolbaşı, a council member and the Turkish Glassware Council President, presented information about the scope of foreign trade statistical reports. He stated that foreign trade data is currently followed by the distribution of products and countries on the basis of GTIP and in this context, a request will be made before the relevant Institutions regarding the provision of statistical data by opening the brand code included in the customs declarations.

Councilman Ahmet Çelebi presented information about the last agenda item of the meeting, credit card installments. With the latest BDDK decision, it stated that the number of installments for electronic goods purchases excluding television purchases up to 3,500 TL was reduced from 6 to 4, while the installment periods continued as 12 months for televisions under 3,500 TL. In the last year, he said, television prices have increased due to increases in both the exchange rate and input costs, and the possibility of applying 12 installments in credit card sales has disappeared in a significant part of domestically manufactured televisions. For this reason, he shared with the participants that the price cap should be requested to be updated and that it was appropriate to justify the price cap more clearly taking into account the rate of increase in rates and TV screen sizes, and then apply before the relevant institutions.