Mediaboss Marketing

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Investors hammered Turkeys lira on Tuesday, sending it to a record low after President Tayyip Erdogan said he plans to take greater control of the economy after next months election, deepening concerns about his influence on monetary policy.

Erdogans comments, in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London, reinforced long-standing worries about the central banks ability to fight double-digit inflation amid the presidents drive for lower interest rates.

He said the central bank, while independent, would not be able to ignore signals from the new executive presidency that comes into effect after the June polls. A self-described enemy of interest rates, Erdogan wants borrowing costs lowered to fuel credit and new construction.

I will take the responsibility as the indisputable head of the executive in respect of the steps to be taken and decisions on these issues, he said in the interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Turkey has called snap presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24 and polls show Erdogan as the strongest candidate to win the presidential vote. Turks narrowly backed a switch to an executive presidency in a referendum last year. That change is due to go into effect after the vote.

Erdogan's comments helped pushed the ailing lira TRYTOM=D3 to a fresh record low of 4.4604 against the dollar, bringing its decline this year to more than 14 percent.

It clawed back some of its losses after one of his advisers, Cemil Ertem, said the central bank had the independence to use all the tools at its disposal.

Yields on 10-year government bonds TR10YT=RR briefly touched their highest since at least January 2010.

To view a graphic on Lira and emerging market currency performance, YTD, click: reut.rs/2wGQ5cm

Centralization of power and interference in the monetary policy is a concern to us, said Dietmar Hornung, an associate managing director and head of European Sovereigns at ratings agency Moodys, at a conference in London.

However, Erdogans economic adviser Ertem said the reduction of rates was a general target, rather than a specific aim of the banks next rate-setting meeting on June 7 - comments likely designed to take some pain off the lira.

President Erdogans emphasis is not directed towards June 7. What the president says is that interest rates should be reduced as a target, he told Reuters.

Erdogan said citizens would ultimately hold the president responsible for any problems generated by monetary policy.

They will hold the president accountable. Since they will ask the president about it, we have to give off the image of a president who is effective in monetary policies, he said.

This may make some uncomfortable. But we have to do it. Because its those who rule the state who are accountable to the citizens, he said.

He also said Halkbank (HALKB.IS) executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was found guilty by a U.S. court of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, was innocent and Turkey wanted his acquittal.

If Hakan Atilla is going to be declared a criminal, that would be almost equivalent to declaring the Turkish Republic a criminal, he said.

To view a graphic on Turkey inflation and central bank funding, click: reut.rs/2rhsMkh

Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; Editing by Janet Lawrence

Read more from the original source:
Turkey's Erdogan plans to take greater control of economy ...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said the United States should look at its own actions if it wants the return of an American Christian pastor who has been jailed in Turkey for suspected links to a 2016 failed coup.

Erdogan made the comment in a live interview with broadcaster NTV.

Andrew Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, was indicted on charges of helping the group that Ankara holds responsible for the failed coup against Erdogan. He faces up to 35 years in prison. Brunson denies the charges.

Erdogan has previously linked Brunsons fate to that of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, the Muslim cleric Turkey blames for the coup attempt. Gulen has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies the charges. Turkey is seeking his extradition from the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump and dozens of U.S. senators have urged Erdogan to release Brunson.

Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones

Read the original:
Turkey's Erdogan says U.S. should look at its own actions ...

The country also enjoyed over 7 percent growth in the last quarter of 2017. Yet there are signs that the economy is faltering. Inflation remains persistently high, which hurts many of Mr. Erdogans own supporters.

The snap election was also seen as a move to undercut political opponents.

Mr. Erdogans announcement came after discussions with Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkeys main nationalist party, the Nationalist Movement Party, which has entered a formal alliance with Mr. Erdogans Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., for the elections.

Mr. Bahceli said that he supported early elections for the stability of the country and the economy. But he also seems to be concerned with fending off a rival for the nationalist vote, Meral Aksener, who split from his party and formed her own party, the Good Party, last year, according to Turkish media reports.

The early timing of the election now could prevent Ms. Aksener from running, since her new party may not be considered to have passed the required six months from its first party congress.

Ms. Aksener, a former interior minister, has nevertheless declared her intention to challenge Mr. Erdogan for president and field candidates for Parliament.

Turkeys largest opposition party, the Republican Peoples Party, or C.H.P., was caught flat-footed by the announcement, and has not yet selected a candidate for president. Its leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, ruled out running for the presidency last year.

Engin Altay, the deputy head of C.H.P.s parliamentary group, told a Turkish television station that a candidate would be chosen within 15 days.

The rest is here:
Erdogan Calls Early Turkish Elections in Bid to Solidify ...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called elections a year earlier than scheduled, moving to consolidate his one-man rule of the regions largest economy.

The vote will complete the transformation of the political system, eliminating the prime ministers job and weakening the role of parliament. Turkish markets rallied after Erdogans announcement in Ankara that the country will go to the polls June 24 to pick a president, almost certainly ratifying his hold on power.

In calling an early election, Erdogan must feel confident he and his AK Party have the necessary numbers to achieve victory," said Paul Greer, a London-based portfolio manager at Fidelity International. "That itself should reduce market uncertainty."

Erdogans ruling party has never called early elections in the nearly 16 years its been in power, and repeatedly rejected speculation that itd call them this year. Many analysts had predicted an early vote nonetheless, saying a deteriorating economic outlook and fighting in neighboring Syria would prompt him to move up the date rather than risk re-election in a downturn.

Erdogan, who defeated an attempted coup in 2016, has stoked nationalist fervor since launching an incursion into Syria in January, playing the same card as other strongmen, such as Russias Vladimir Putin.

It has become a necessity for Turkey to overcome uncertainties as soon as possible amid developments of historical importance in our region as well as the cross-border operation were carrying out in Syria, Erdogan said in announcing the vote.

Turkish forces captured swaths of northwestern Syria from U.S.-backed Kurdish militants, including the Kurdish stronghold of Afrin. Turkey refused to return the territory it has captured to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad until after independent elections there to make sure that territorial integrity of Syria remains intact.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the nationalist party allied with Erdogan, proposed on Tuesday that the vote be moved forward to Aug. 26 of this year from November 2019.

The lira extended gains after the announcement, appreciating 1.6 percent to 4.03 per dollar as of 6:30 p.m. in Istanbul; it has weakened this year against all 17 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The benchmark stock index added 3.1 percent, its biggest one-day gain in a year.

The market rally reflects investor hopes that once a vote has passed, policy makers will dial back efforts to promote growth at the expense of a possible credit bubble, widening budget deficit and accelerating inflation.

Such hopes of a normalization may be misplaced, said Jan Dehn, head of research in London at Ashmore Group Plc, which focuses on emerging markets. He compared the situation to optimistic forecasts for the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Argentinas Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

"Markets hope that if Erdogan wins he can do some adjustment and get a bit more normal," said Dehn. "A bit like how markets used to view Chavez and even Kirchner. In reality of course, they did not get more moderate. They got more radical instead."

Turkey has become the worlds leading jailer of journalists, and Erdogans government in March widened the powers of its radio and television censor to include the Internet.

Since the failed putsch in 2016, the government rounded up of opponents by the tens of thousands, including workers in every branch of government and leading members of the media, academia and the judiciary. Even Miss Turkey was dethroned and jailed for criticizing Erdogan on Instagram.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in December identified 73 jailed Turkish journalists, the most in the world for the second year running.

It has also banned or blocked access at times to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, as well as the virtual private network services, or VPNs, that allow users to mask their locations and skirt the bans. Wikipedia -- in all languages -- has been blocked for almost a year.

With assistance by Selcan Hacaoglu, Ben Bartenstein, and Constantine Courcoulas

Go here to read the rest:
Erdogan Calls Snap Election for June; Lira, Stocks Rally ...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets members of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, at the Grand National Assembly in Ankara earlier this year. Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets members of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, at the Grand National Assembly in Ankara earlier this year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called new presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, more than a year earlier than scheduled. The change announced Wednesday by Erdogan speeds the implementation of the constitutional changes approved last year, which will give the president broad new powers upon completion of the next national election.

Just hours after Erdogan's televised address Wednesday, Turkish lawmakers voted to extend the country's state of emergency through July the seventh such extension since Ankara first implemented it after an attempted coup in July 2016.

Speaking at the presidential palace in Ankara before the parliamentary vote, Erdogan told the country that, with political uncertainty rampant in the region, there was simply no time to lose in scheduling new elections.

"Even though the president and government are working in unison, the diseases of the old system confront us at every step we take," Erdogan said, as translated by The Guardian. "Developments in Syria and elsewhere have made it urgent to switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country's future in a stronger way."

Turkey launched a military operation in northwest Syria earlier this year, aimed at dislodging Kurdish fighters from the region just across the Turkish border. Ankara views the People's Protection Units, or YPG, a Kurdish militia operating in that area, as a terrorist group allied with Kurdish separatists inside its own borders and just last month, the Turkish military seized the Syrian city of Afrin from the Kurds.

As NPR's Peter Kenyon noted at the time, Erdogan has been riding a wave of domestic support for the operation, which "has analysts concluding that Erdogan's political support is on the rise."

At the same time, Erdogan said his decision to call the vote came not solely of his own accord, but partly at the suggestion of a political ally: Devlet Baheli, head of the nationalist MHP party, who proposed the idea Tuesday. Baheli said there's little reason to prolong the wait to implement those constitutional changes passed last year, which exchange the country's parliamentary form of government for one that concentrates most of the power with the president.

Erdogan added during his speech that his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has entered a political alliance with Baheli's party for the coming elections.

Other parties, however, have resisted the proposition at least as long as the nearly 2-year-old state of emergency remains in place.

"There cannot be an election under emergency rule," said Bulent Tezcan, spokesman for the main opposition party, according to Reuters. "The country needs to brought out of the emergency rule regime starting today."

Elections held under the state of emergency are likely to hasten Erdogan's consolidation of power and are unlikely to come as welcome news to the European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join. Just one day earlier, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, expressed dismay at the recent political developments in Turkey.

"Most worryingly, in the crucial area of fundamental rights, Turkey has taken significant steps backwards," Johannes Hahn, the commissioner considering potential new members, said while introducing a new report on Turkey's EU bid Tuesday.

Conceding that the 2016 coup attempt "fundamentally changed the security situation" in Turkey, Hahn said Ankara's response has been disproportionate.

"Journalists, human rights activists, members of civil society are still being imprisoned," he added. "Since the introduction of the state of emergency, more than 150,000 people have been taken into custody, and many are still detained."

The lengthy report itself made the matter even more plain: "Turkey should lift the state of emergency without delay."

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, rejected the report's conclusions in a lengthy rebuttal, citing its continuing fight against multiple terrorist organizations.

"Unfortunately, the European Commission showed that it was once again unwilling to understand the difficulties of the period we are passing through," the ministry said in its statement. "Although we have explained these issues repeatedly supported by documentation, the Commission was unable to be objective and balanced."

Regardless of the EU's concerns about the state of emergency, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Wednesday that they are proceeding without delay, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

"The process has officially started," he said.

Follow this link:
Erdogan Calls Snap Elections In Turkey, And State Of ...