Türkiye’s newly established board tasked with overseeing the rapid liquidation of investment funds caught in the recent turmoil said Friday that work had been carried out on draft amendments to the Capital Markets Law and that the relevant institutions had been instructed to finalize the proposed changes.

The statement followed a meeting of the Fund Coordination Board set up last week and chaired by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz. The State Supervisory Council (DDK) has also been assigned to examine the issue.

The fund turmoil erupted last month after suspected price manipulation in a number ⁠of thinly traded stocks triggered heavy losses and redemption pressures at investment funds.

Almost half a million investors hold stakes in ⁠more than 100 investment funds with combined assets of $20 billion that authorities ordered to be liquidated in mid-September.

The board reviewed on Friday the results of measures already taken and discussed new steps, according to the statement by the Directorate of Communications.

It reviewed secondary regulations and a timetable for payments linked to decisions taken by the Capital Markets Board on Wednesday.

The SPK said it would begin making interim payments to investors in the funds that were ordered to shut down.

Investors in asset managers Tera Portföy, Pusula Portföy, Atlas Portföy ⁠and Hedef Portföy will receive their full net investment amount if it is below TL 1 million ($20,404). Investors whose net investment amount is TL 1 million or above will receive TL 1 million as an interim payment.

The procedure will start with money market funds, the SPK said.

Friday’s statement said the draft amendments, on which work has been underway for some time, were also discussed. It stressed that the planned regulations should not impose any additional burden on citizens.

The directorate described the problem as arising in a “specific and limited” part of the fund market. It said work to resolve it would continue quickly and effectively, in line with capital markets rules and guided by fairness and equity.

The problems emerged in early September, when the SPK changed its guidelines for investment funds. Funds could no longer put all their assets into a single stock and were required to diversify.

The move sought to address concerns that many funds were heavily invested in a small number of obscure or hard-to-sell stocks.

To comply, some funds began selling holdings, which spooked investors and set off a rush to cash out. Several fund management companies then admitted they could not meet redemption demands.

On Sept. 16, authorities ordered 131 funds managed by seven companies into liquidation.

Top officials, including Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, have sought to reassure markets, saying the turmoil does not threaten the wider financial system and describing the problem as limited.

Şimşek told investors on Thursday that authorities had moved quickly to contain problems and prevent them from developing into a systemic crisis, adding that further regulatory measures would be needed.

Speaking separately on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said developments in the fund market would not pose a threat to the economy. He said authorities would not allow the issue to become a threat to Türkiye’s economic security or social stability.

Prosecutors are also investigating. The SPK said some funds had caused price movements that could not be explained by company fundamentals, and it filed criminal complaints over alleged manipulative transactions.

Authorities have imposed travel bans and asset freezes, while arresting 65 people, including top financial executives, as of Friday.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil, beginning with substantial volumes of diesel, as fuel prices hit record highs in the United States and President Donald Trump said the diesel supplies would be released immediately.

Trump and his Republican Party face pressure to address surging prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump announced the action Friday on social media, saying, “Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil. The process will begin immediately.”

The president faces lagging approval ratings as the Iran war and his trade battles have increased U.S. prices for oil and other goods.

Gas prices in the U.S. and abroad have soared during the eight-month-long war, a cost Trump has repeatedly said is worth it for making sure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. Trump has insisted prices will come down after the war, though there’s no end in sight.

The national average for a gallon of diesel in the U.S. was $6.37 on Friday, according to AAA, after hitting a record $6.52 on Sept. 22.

Trump had a conversation overnight with French President Emmanuel Macron, the chair of the G7, about the need to address rising fuel prices and the availability of petroleum products, according to the French Embassy in the U.S. Macron on Friday then chaired a videoconference of G7 leaders to discuss the issue.

France holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group and made the announcement in a statement released after video-conference talks that Macron presided over. The International Energy Agency will coordinate the effort to combat soaring fuel prices. “We will implement our commitments with a coordinated release through the IEA of 100 million barrels (MB) to begin immediately over 4 months, including a frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days by G7 members and partners,” the statement said.

A new AP-NORC poll found that a majority of U.S. adults blame Trump for higher prices, and approval of his handling of the economy hit a new low.

Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with what he sees as a disconnect between his achievements and the public’s view of his work. Trump this week gave himself an A-plus for his work on the economy but said “we’re doing an extremely poor job of promotion.”

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

World food prices rose in September to their highest in nearly four years as logistics disruptions and weather concerns ​affected crop markets, the United Nations’ Food and ​Agriculture Organization ⁠(FAO) said Friday.

Fears about a severe El Nino weather pattern have pushed international sugar prices to an 18-month high, while a war-related collapse in Black Sea trade pushed wheat futures to a three-year peak early last month.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of food commodities, averaged 136.0 points, up from a revised 134.0 for August and the highest reading since November 2022.

“We are seeing a persistent and increasingly broad-based build up in global commodity prices, as ⁠disruptions ⁠in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea combine with climate shocks, putting pressure on energy, transport and key food commodities,” FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero said.

“If sustained, these pressures will soon pass through to consumer food prices, especially in food and energy import-dependent countries,” he said in a statement.

FAO’s sugar price index jumped 6.1% from August in a third consecutive monthly increase, as adverse weather threatened to curb ⁠supply in major production zones.

The agency’s cereal price benchmark rose 5.1% on the month, with reduced yield prospects for US corn adding to pressure from disruptions to Black ​Sea grain trade.

Vegetable oil prices edged up 0.9%, driven by palm oil ​on the back of strong demand and concerns over El Nino-related production risks in Southeast Asia.

FAO’s overall meat index eased 1.1%. ⁠That reflected ‌lower poultry ‌prices, partly linked to a drop in European ⁠Union demand as new import rules took effect.

In ‌a separate report, FAO kept its forecast for global cereal production in 2026 almost ​unchanged at 2.979 billion metric tons, ⁠2.1% below the previous year’s peak but ⁠still the second-largest harvest on record.

FAO cut its forecast for world cereal ⁠trade in 2026/27 ​by 0.7% from last month, citing lower wheat and maize export expectations amid constrained Black Sea shipping.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Inflation in the eurozone jumped more than expected to reach its highest level in three years in September, as the war in the Middle East fueled a surge in energy costs, official data showed Friday.

The consumer price index in the 21 nations sharing the euro currency jumped to 3.8% last month, driven primarily by fuel, natural gas, and to a lesser extent, food costs, according to data from Eurostat, the ​EU’s statistics agency.

The figure is up from 3.2% in August and is higher than the 3.7% forecast by economists for Bloomberg and 3.6% estimated in a Reuters poll.

Inflation is likely to increase further in the coming months on soaring energy costs, keeping pressure on the ECB to hike rates again and governments to help struggling consumers.

A closely watched ‘core’ figure, which excludes volatile food ​and fuel prices and signals underlying trends, accelerated to 2.5% from 2.4%, on a pick-up in services prices, the data showed.

Rising fuel costs are putting pressure on European governments to support households and businesses, ⁠and in some countries such as France have already triggered street protests, potentially stretching already precarious public finances.

While subsidies have been minor so far, ​totalling around 0.1% of the bloc’s GDP, they are less targeted and temporary than hoped, suggesting more lasting budget pain.

For the ECB, the figures are ​likely to be seen as a mixed bag.

The rise in headline inflation further above its 2% target is worrisome and will bolster calls for rate hikes on top of the two moves this summer.

As the U.S. war against Iran drags on, the conflict has caused major disruptions to fuel supplies from the Middle East, including from the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy trade route.

Energy price increases surged to 18.8% in September, up from 14.3% a month earlier, Eurostat said.

Meanwhile, food and drinks inflation increased to 1.4% from 1.1% in August.

Eurozone inflation was last above 3.8% in September 2023, when it stood at 4.3%.

Will ECB maintain its ‘measured’ policy response?

The muted increase in core figures indicates that high energy costs have yet to generate the sort ​of second-round impacts that could set off a hard-to-break inflation spiral.

These would suggest the ECB can stick to its ‘measured’ policy response, an undefined concept ​taken by markets to mean spaced-out rate hikes, perhaps to coincide with quarterly economic projections.

“September’s (inflation) data don’t alter our view that the ECB is most likely to ‌wait ⁠until December to raise interest rates again,” Jack Allen-Reynolds at Capital Economics said. “That said, if energy prices rose further in the next few weeks, an October hike would not be a big surprise.”

Investors see up to three more hikes in the ECB’s 2.5% deposit rate in the coming year, but the odds of a move this month are seen as negligible and the next increase is not fully priced in until January.

These expectations change ​rapidly, however, and even policymakers acknowledge ​that their own projections are far too ⁠uncertain.

Policy hawks argue that energy costs have been too high for too long, so they are bound to start setting off second-round effects, and the recent surge in natural gas costs will feed into core prices more ​quickly than in the past, lifting everything from electricity and heating costs to business expenses.

But others say the ​labor market is ⁠relatively soft, so workers can hardly demand big pay increases, and the recent sharp increase in longer-term borrowing costs is also bound to curtail price growth.

Ultimately, the clincher for the next rate decision may be considerations for financial stability rather than inflation.

Borrowing costs have soared, mostly as the blowout in U.S. yields to a ⁠24-year high ​affects every borrower. But investors are also demanding a greater premium to hold riskier ​assets and the spread on French debt over similar German bonds has risen to multi-decade highs, raising debt sustainability questions.

Economists say the ECB may be keen to stay on the sidelines ​for now and not add to the turbulence, especially since inflation trends do not require urgent or forceful action.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

OpenAI has fired three employees after a series of controversial hacking incidents linked to its artificial intelligence systems.

The ChatGPT developer said Thursday that the employees had violated “policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information.” Nobody had been dismissed for raising safety concerns, the AI firm said.

The misconduct went beyond sharing information with an external analysis firm, OpenAI said, without giving further details.

The San Francisco-based AI lab did not confirm their identities, but at least two of the employees worked on safety and alignment, according to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

“Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work,” OpenAI told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a statement.

The firings come amid a tense debate about AI safety and whether the technology presents an existential risk to humanity.

Last month, a 27-year-old researcher named Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic with a stark warning that the leading AI labs, including OpenAI, where he previously worked, were “gambling with our lives” by racing toward developing ever more powerful models.

The three researchers fired by OpenAI are Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, according to the WSJ.

All three have regularly posted about AI safety-related issues on the social media platform X in recent weeks.

“i am at OpenAI and i think AI is >10% likely to kill all humans,” Balesni posted on Sept. 10, echoing statements made by other AI employees in recent weeks.

As speculation swirled about why employees at OpenAI and Anthropic were speaking so freely about their personal beliefs, Korbak jumped into the public discourse.

“I’m quite unhappy with much of what OpenAI does. I am very happy that Im allowed to say ‘I’m quite unhappy with much of what OpenAI does,'” Korbak wrote on Sept. 11.

“It’s hard to overstate how dangerous speeding towards RSI is,” Wang posted in response to Coxon’s resignation, referring to recursive self-improvement, which is a technique where software is designed to continuously teach itself.

Leading U.S. tech companies signed a voluntary pledge this week to regulate themselves on safety after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Trump called it a “morally binding” commitment to build adequate safeguards on the fast-moving technology.

Executives from Nvidia, Google, Meta, xAI, OpenAI and Anthropic signed the agreement.

Safety concerns

Concerns about the safety of advanced AI models have escalated in recent months.

OpenAI canceled the release of a new model, Astra 6.1, because it deemed the model unreliable and found that it frequently ignored instructions.

Instead, the company launched GPT-6.1 Sol, an updated version of a different model, during its annual DevDay conference Tuesday from San Francisco. OpenAI said Sol would cost one-fifth the price of Astra.

In July, AI agents developed by OpenAI attacked Hugging Face, an AI model and application library, during an incident where the autonomous software escaped its confined testing environment.

Since then, additional security incidents have been reported that involved models developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

On Thursday, cybersecurity firm Asymmetric Security said in a report that agents developed by OpenAI covered up their own tracks after gaining unauthorized access to government websites.

The Federal Trade Commission launched a broad investigation into artificial intelligence safety practices at Anthropic and OpenAI, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, though the scope of the inquiry is unclear.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The United States on Thursday told its European allies to help lower global diesel prices by releasing strategic reserves “immediately,” with EU member states due to discuss the crisis on Friday.

Reports said the Trump administration had told Germany and France in particular to draw down emergency diesel inventories to help ease soaring global fuel prices or ‌face a potential U.S. diesel export ban.

“Our European partners should accelerate delivery on their existing commitments and make additional supplies immediately available to address ongoing disruptions,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on social media.

EU member states will meet with the European Commission Friday to discuss a coordinated response to soaring fuel prices, a Commission spokesperson said.

Washington is piling on pressure to get European help with fuel costs, with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday floating the possibility of banning diesel exports.

High energy costs loom as a threat to Trump’s Republican Party in next month’s midterm elections.

Europe’s relationship with Washington has soured under Trump due to tariff disputes and disagreements over military spending.

For the EU, releasing more stocks would represent ​a dilemma as it needs to balance the need to bring down fuel prices at home with maintaining high stocks for a possible worsening of the ​fuel crisis should Trump and Iran not reach a peace deal.

“It is in Europe’s best interest to work with the United States as we pursue multiple pathways to boost the supply of refined products and lower costs for consumers,” a U.S. official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

At G-20 trade ministers’ meeting in Milwaukee, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer struck a conciliatory tone, saying there was an “eagerness on both sides to work together” on the diesel issue.

And Trump told reporters in Texas on Thursday that he “may” ask European countries to release diesel reserves.

Europe has become increasingly dependent on U.S. fuel after banning Russian imports over Russia’s ‌invasion of ⁠Ukraine and after the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran disrupted supplies from the Middle East.

‘Unexpected’

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told reporters Thursday that any move by the U.S. to ban diesel exports would be “unexpected for Europeans.”

He spoke on the sidelines of the two-day G-20 talks, after meeting with Greer.

Sefcovic told reporters that he did not go into details with Greer on energy exports.

But the transatlantic partners “decided to stay in close touch to avoid any surprises here,” he said.

“It would have very dramatic consequences for our economic performance,” Sefcovic said of any potential diesel export ban.

France’s minister delegate for international trade, Nicolas Forissier, told AFP in Milwaukee: “I can’t imagine that there will be a ban.”

He stressed the importance of diesel to the United States and European countries, adding both sides will “try to find solutions.”

“In France, we’ll try to find balanced solutions all over the world,” Forissier added. “If not with the Americans, it will be with other countries.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that the world would “hear announcements from our friends in Europe” to push diesel prices down.

Asked about a release from strategic reserves, the French presidency said no such demand had been made when Emmanuel Macron and Trump met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last week.

Macron would also soon convene a video meeting of G-7 leaders “to make progress on the various levers that can be used to address the rising fuel prices… including coordination on releasing reserves.”

Macron announced on Sept. 18 a plan for such a meeting. The G-7 gathering is expected in mid-October, according to Macron’s press office.

Average U.S. diesel prices have surged more than 70% to $6.39 a gallon since the start of the Iran war, according to AAA motor club data.

Fuel prices have caused living costs to soar, leaving Trump’s Republican Party fearing it could lose control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.