The “Pandemeter” research conducted by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) pointed out that the markets started to recover quickly despite the pandemic, especially when the postponed demand of the consumer combined with low-interest loans, while 7 months of the year were left behind.
In the “Pandemeter” research, 11 indicators such as tax collection, housing and automobile sales, loan interest rates, card expenditures, capacity utilization rate, bounced checks and the number of newly established companies for the first half of 2019 and 2020 were compared.
According to the research, the “V” type recovery on both the production and consumption fronts has caught up with last year in terms of the level of economic activity.
According to the research, which takes into account the official statistics of the relevant institutions, tax payments in Istanbul, which were 139 billion liras in the first half of last year, increased by more than 10 percent in the same period of this year and reached over 154 billion liras.
The number of newly established companies in ITO increased by about 10 percent in 7 months compared to the same period last year, from 27,752 to 30,509.
Commercial loan interest rates opened in TL decreased from 24.05 percent on July 19, 2019 to 9.30 percent on July 17, 2020.
The CBRT Real Sector Confidence Index, which was 98.3 points in July 2019, became 100.7 points in July 2020.
While housing sales in Istanbul exceeded 106 thousand with an increase of 16 percent in the first half of this year, automobile sales in Turkey increased from 156 thousand to 203 thousand units.
According to the title of the research, “Debit card and credit card expenditures”, spending with domestic and foreign cards, which was 475 billion lira in the January-June 2019 period, increased by 7.18 percent in the first half of this year and reached 509 billion lira.
Other results of the research are as follows:
“The volume of consumer loans consisting of housing, vehicle and personal loans increased to 622 billion liras in the week of July 24 this year. The rate of increase was 55.04 percent. While capacity utilization in the manufacturing industry was 76.2 percent on a monthly basis in July 2019, it decreased to 70.07 percent in July 2020. In the first 6 months of 2020, exports from Istanbul fell 16 percent to 36 billion dollars. Despite the increase in the amount of checks presented to banks, the amount of bounced checks in Istanbul decreased. In the first 6 months of this year, it was 3.1 billion liras with a 42 percent decrease compared to the January-June period of last year.”
“Many of our sectors have been able to recover significant losses caused by the pandemic”
ITO President Şekib Avdagiç stated in a statement to AA correspondent that in 7 months of 2020, they observed that the government’s interventions regarding the effects of the pandemic on the sectors gave positive results.
Stating that the measures that will strengthen the business world are a strong protection against the pandemic, Avdagiç said:
“Turkey, together with its government, business world and citizens, is giving an example of a serious struggle against the pandemic. With the normalization process, many of our sectors have managed to correct the loss caused by the pandemic at serious rates. The normalization period signals a new breakthrough period. We have also increased our strength against the possible second wave of the virus. As we enter the last 2 quarters of the year, we have significantly recovered from the pandemic effect. The second half of 2020 will be the year of gaining strength against the pandemic.”
Avdagiç said that Turkey has received the positive rewards of both keeping the production lines open and the measures taken immediately, and that Turkey will consider 2020, which many countries have accepted to spend with major contractions, as a “period of restoring its economic condition”.
Stating that the figures show that Turkey is at the forefront of the early recovery countries, Avdagiç said, “Now the goal is to be in the first ring. We have the necessary potential for this. In addition, our government’s approach that supports export products that substitute imports in reducing the current account deficit is very important. A determined vision has been determined and a support package has been put in place. We need to reduce the external deficit with the support of our government. We need to work hard on this issue.”
Emphasizing that the tourism sector is of great importance both with its contribution to employment and the foreign currency it provides, Avdagiç said, “We hope that there will be no second wave in the epidemic and we will recover our losses in the tourism and related sectors such as travel agencies, tourism transportation companies, fairs, events, show organizers and the food and beverage sector.”
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/uretim-ve-tuketim-cephesinde-v-tipi-toparlanma-gerceklesti/1930149
