The Turkish competition watchdog said Wednesday it has ​launched an investigation into 65 ‌companies in the auditing and financial advisory sector, including major global accounting firms.

The Competition Board (RK) said the ​probe includes the Turkish units of ⁠the so-called Big Four accounting firms: KPMG, ​PwC, Deloitte and EY.

In a statement, ​the authority said the probe aims to determine whether firms and professional organizations in the ​sector coordinated on service fees ​or engaged in anti-competitive practices in the labor ‌market.

The authority said it is ​examining whether ​companies ⁠shared service prices or client portfolios in ways that ​may have violated competition, whether ​they ⁠took decisions that could block market entry or distort competition, and whether they ⁠shared ​information that negatively ​affected employee rights and wages.

“The Competition Board, at its meeting on Jan. 29, 2026, decided to determine whether Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition was violated by making price fixing and customer sharing agreements in service (output) markets, and non-poaching and wage fixing labor agreements (input) markets; exchanging information regarding both input and output markets; and also taking decisions of undertaking associations that restrict competition,” the statement shared by the authority read.

KPMG ⁠and EY declined to comment, while Deloitte and PwC were not immediately available for comment.

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Dutch firms have invested around $34 billion in Türkiye since 2002, accounting for about 17% of total foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the country, positioning the Netherlands at the place of the largest investor in the country, according to the Dutch ambassador to Ankara, Joep Wijnands, on Wednesday.

Wijnands stated that over 3,000 Dutch firms are registered in Türkiye due to the country’s strategic geographical location, making it a “two-way gateway from Europe to the Middle East and Central Asia,” while its skilled workforce and growing economy offer opportunities.

The Netherlands ranked first in FDIs into Türkiye last year with $2.8 billion, according to the Turkish Investment and Finance Office.

The foreign trade volume between the Netherlands and Türkiye reached $14 billion, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Turkish exports to the Netherlands totaled $7.2 billion in 2025, making it the ninth-largest destination for Turkish exports, while the figure rose 7.4% year-over-year to $580 million in January 2026, according to the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM).

Turkish offering

Wijnands suggested that while Dutch firms invest in Türkiye for the myriad opportunities the country offers, Turkish investors also view the Netherlands as a strategic gateway to Europe for international businesses, with the Turkish community of over half a million in the Netherlands playing key roles in these two-way investments.

He attributed the rise in FDIs into Türkiye, which stood at 12.2%, well above the global trend of 2% according to a 2025 report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to the country’s “well-functioning market economy, highly aligned with the EU’s economic standards.”

He noted that the tight monetary policy in place since mid-2023 has been effective in lowering inflation expectations and stabilizing the Turkish lira, though inflation still remains above desired levels, while Türkiye’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list in 2024 boosted investor confidence, along with its resilience amid domestic and global challenges.

Wijnands also stated that the EU-Türkiye Customs Union played a positive and transformative role for the country in trade and economic development, while closer ties enhanced the Turkish economy’s rapid modernization, strengthening its competitiveness.

Leading sectors

He said Türkiye has established a position in the global economy as a market closely integrated with the EU, attracting many investors.

Dutch investors, for instance, are most interested in Turkish agriculture with concrete investments, especially in berries and seed improvement, but recent years have seen investor focus increasingly turn to health care and renewable energy, while the country’s textile sector is also attracting attention with cooperation opportunities and sustainable production methods.

Wijnands stated that most activity in these sectors is concentrated in manufacturing and services, but there remains untapped potential for further investments from the Netherlands, adding that Dutch and Turkish investors could synergize in green and digital transformation areas.

He noted that although the economic program in place since mid-2023 is beginning to bear fruit, Türkiye’s cost-based competitiveness poses challenges for potential and existing investors, and in this climate, “potential Dutch investors would like to see more structural reforms.”

Moreover, Wijnands mentioned that the Dutch government provides various support programs for Dutch firms to invest in Türkiye and for Turkish investors to invest in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Innovation Network (NIN), actively represented since 2013, works to facilitate partnerships between universities, knowledge institutions, and public institutions in the two countries.

The Dutch Business Association (DBA) Türkiye also works to further strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries by cooperating with the Dutch Consulate General in Istanbul and the Embassy in Ankara to promote, develop, and support trade and investments.

The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) aims to strengthen the innovation and tech ecosystems of the two countries and contribute to innovation capacity and sustainability.

Wijnands stated that the key Turkish export items with increasing volumes to the Netherlands in recent years have been textiles, chemicals and the automotive sector, while Dutch exports to Türkiye have mainly been iron and steel, especially iron waste and scrap, as well as machinery and mechanical appliances.

He noted that open dialogue and concrete cooperation are key to sustaining success in trade relations, such as the Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) meetings held annually between the two countries.

‘Made in Europe’ initiative

The European Commission unveiled the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) on March 4 to boost domestic manufacturing to 20% of the bloc’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 while reducing dependence on China. The regulation also stipulates that a certain portion of production must be carried out in the EU for strategic purchases made with public funds.

The draft legislation recognizes the existing customs union between Türkiye and the EU, following months of negotiations, and Türkiye’s inclusion means that Turkish-made goods will be classified as having EU origin with the “Made in Europe” tag when competing for European public contracts and state subsidies.

Wijnands stated that the Netherlands is a “strong advocate of fair and open trade,” welcoming the recognition of the customs union framework between Türkiye and the EU in the Industrial Accelerator Act draft.

The ambassador added that the current geopolitical climate has created the need to reassess strategic priorities such as economic resilience in the EU, prompting the European Commission to submit various proposals to strengthen the bloc’s economic backbone.

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Türkiye’s retail sales growth accelerated further in January to the highest level in nearly two years, extending the positive momentum seen in recent months, official data showed on Wednesday.

The volume of retail sales climbed 18.8% yearly in January, faster than the 16.5% rise in December, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Moreover, this was the sharpest growth since March 2024, when sales had surged 20.1%.

The annual sales growth in non-food products, except automotive fuel, quickened to 26.4% from 20.2%, and that in textiles, clothing and footwear improved to 14.9% from 6.6%.

Meanwhile, the sales of food, beverages, and tobacco increased at a slower pace of 9.5% versus 10.2% a month ago.

Data also showed that online retail sales were 29.7% higher compared to a 17.4% growth seen in December.

Monthly, retail sales climbed 2.4% in January, following a 1.8% gain in the prior month.

The rise in retail sales was also reflected in overall trade sales, which surged 7.6% compared to the same month last year. Among other subindices in trade sales, the volume of repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles rose 13.6% on an annual basis, while wholesale trade sales volume saw a more moderate increase of 1.5% over the same period.

At the same time, trade sales volume increased by 0.1% month-over-month.

Retail sales and trade sales in general are a significant indicator of consumption and consumer behavior, and they contribute to gross domestic product (GDP).

Separate data shared by TurkStat on Wednesday also showed that the total turnover in the Turkish economy rose 35.8% on an annual basis in January.

Looking at the details of the total turnover index, industry turnover was up 30.0%, construction increased by 34.0%, trade surged 39.4% and services by 33.8% on an annual basis in January 2026.

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Iran is betting it can outlast the U.S. and Israel by turning the conflict into a prolonged war of endurance. Its strategy is stark: Unleash drones and missiles, cut vital energy routes and jolt global markets hard enough to force Washington to blink first.

Despite the shock of U.S.-Israeli strikes and the loss of key figures, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is firmly in control, directing the battlefield, executing preplanned contingencies and dictating strategy and targets in the war.

The IRGC also played the decisive role in elevating Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes.

“For them, they are waging an existential fight. This is an all-out war,” said Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics. “They believe their very survival is at stake. They’re willing to bring the temple down on everyone’s heads.”

Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and expert on Iranian politics, added: “They’re like a bleeding animal – wounded, but therefore more dangerous than ever.”

That all-out war mindset is behind Iran’s escalating strikes across the Gulf, targeting energy hubs from Qatar to Saudi Arabia to maximize economic disruption in a calculated attempt to drive up costs for its neighbors, Europe and the United States and test Washington’s political will.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers Monday the war would continue until Iran is “totally and decisively defeated,” but predicted it would be over soon.

He added that once the U.S. is done with the military operation against Iran, Tehran will not have weapons to use against the U.S., Israel or U.S. allies.

Iranian insiders say this escalation was anticipated long before the war began 11 days ago. Iranian planners assumed a confrontation with Washington and Israel was inevitable and prepared a layered strategy coordinated across the IRGC’s sprawling military networks and proxy forces.

Now, with little left to lose, Iran is executing that plan and turning the conflict into a grinding war of attrition aimed at exhausting its adversaries politically and economically.

The consequences are already visible at home.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection as supreme leader, insiders say, proves the Guard’s dominance as kingmakers. They say the balance of power has shifted.

The supreme leader holds the title, but the future of Iran, and the authority of the clerical establishment itself, now depends on whether the Guard can weather the storm unleashed by the U.S.-Israeli campaign.

How long?

But a critical unknown in the war, says Mohannad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, is how long the Guard can sustain its missile campaign, the backbone of its strategy against its adversaries.

U.S. officials say a large share of Iran’s arsenal has already been destroyed, but regional sources say Tehran may still retain more than half its prewar stockpile.

If that estimate holds, Iran could keep launching missiles for several more weeks, a timeframe that could prove significant for Washington as economic pressure mounts at home and abroad.

The Guard’s reach also extends far beyond the battlefield as it reshapes daily life. An Iranian observer said goods that once sat for weeks at ports are now cleared immediately. Paperwork comes later.

Officials described that as preparation for a war economy, ensuring supply lines keep moving under pressure, while also consolidating the IRGC’s control over the state and asserting continuity of governance.

Equally critical is internal stability. So far, there are no signs of protests, elite defections or fractures within the establishment, according to observers and contacts inside Iran.

An insider in Tehran described a city under bombardment but still functioning. “The windows shake day and night,” the person said. “But life goes on.” Shops and banks remain open, supplies are available and most residents have not fled the capital.

The attacks, however, may be producing an effect opposite to what Washington and Israel intended, he noted. Despite long-standing grievances with the government, a surge of national solidarity is taking hold as strikes hit infrastructure, and the possibility of internal insurgencies is openly discussed.

“People are not prepared for Iran to disintegrate,” the source said.

For now, that sentiment may be buying the leadership time. “I don’t know if the regime will survive in the long term,” he added. “But for the next couple of weeks, it will not collapse.”

Who will blink first?

For strategists on both sides, the war is increasingly defined by two parallel tests of endurance: Whether Iran can keep firing missiles and whether the U.S. and Israel can sustain the economic, military and political costs of stopping them.

“The big question is who blinks first in this all-out war – Donald Trump or Iran’s leaders?” Gerges said.

By driving up energy prices and spreading financial pain across Western economies, Tehran hopes the pressure will force a U.S. retreat.

Early signs are that the effects are already biting. Oil prices are spiking, gas costs are rising and political unease is growing in Washington as the economic fallout collides with the 2026 midterm elections.

Under that pressure, Trump, Gerges said, could eventually seek an exit by declaring victory, citing the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, the destruction of Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities and key military infrastructure.

For Tehran, however, survival alone would be enough.

Even if much of its strategic infrastructure is destroyed, Iran’s leadership can claim triumph and survival against one of the greatest military armadas in history.

What emerges may be a wounded Iran, but a bleeding Iran could prove just as dangerous – and perhaps more unpredictable – than the establishment that entered this conflict.

The escalation after the U.S.-Israeli-Iranian conflict is causing collateral damage to the world economy as effects spread way beyond energy prices.

The conflict is driving up energy and fertilizer prices, threatening food shortages in poorer countries, destabilizing some states such as Pakistan, and complicating options for the inflation fighters at central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed).

Causing much of the pain: the Strait of Hormuz – through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes – was effectively shut down after the U.S. and Israel launched missile strikes Feb. 28 that killed Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“For a long time, the nightmare scenario that deterred the U.S. from even thinking about an attack on Iran and which got them to urge restraint on Israel was that the Iranians would close the Strait of Hormuz,” said Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Now we’re in the nightmare scenario.”

With a key shipping route cut off, oil prices have surged – from less than $70 a barrel on Feb. 27 to a peak of nearly $120 early Monday before settling closer to $90. They’ve taken gasoline prices with them.

According to AAA, the average price of U.S. gasoline has shot up to $3.48 a gallon from just under $3 a week ago. Prices could be felt even more significantly in Asia and Europe, which are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil and gas than the United States.

Every 10% increase in oil prices – provided they persist for most of the year – will push up global inflation by 0.4 percentage points and reduce worldwide economic output by as much as 0.2%, said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

“The Strait of Hormuz has to be reopened,” said economist Simon Johnson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

“It’s 20 million barrels of oil a day going through there. There’s no excess capacity anywhere in the world that can fill that gap.”

The world economy has shown it can take a punch, absorbing blows from the Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago and from U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive and unpredictable tariffs in 2025.

Latest crisis

Many economists express hope that global commerce can stagger through the latest crisis.

“The world economy has shown itself capable of shaking off significant shocks like broad U.S. tariffs, so there is room for optimism that it will prove resilient to the fallout of the war on Iran,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

Especially if oil prices can fall back to the $70-to-$80-a-barrel range, wrote economist Neil Shearing of Capital Economics, “the world economy may absorb the shock with less disruption than many fear.”

But a lot of ifs remain.

“The question is how long is it going to go on?” said Johnson, also a former IMF chief economist. “It’s hard to see Iran backing down now that it’s announced this new leader.”

Mojtaba Khamanei, the son of the slain ayatollah, is believed to be even more of a hardliner than his father.

Also muddying the outlook for an end to the crisis is uncertainty about what the United States is trying to achieve. “This is all about President Trump,” Johnson said. “It’s not clear when he’s going to declare victory.”

Winners and losers

For now, the war is likely to create economic winners and losers.

Energy importers – most of Europe, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India and China – will get clobbered by higher prices, Shearing wrote in a commentary for London’s Chatham House think tank.

Pakistan finds itself in an especially bleak position. The South Asian country imports 40% of its energy and relies especially heavily on liquified natural gas from Qatar, supplies of which have been cut off by the conflict. Higher energy prices will squeeze Pakistani families and damage their economy.

Far from cutting interest rates to provide some relief, though, the country’s central bank will probably have to raise them instead, say economists Gareth Leather and Mark Williams of Capital Economics. That is partly because inflation remains uncomfortably high in Pakistan, and higher energy prices threaten to make it worse.

But oil-producing countries outside the warzone – Norway, Russia, Canada – will benefit from high oil prices without the risk of missile and drone attacks.

Impact on food prices

Energy isn’t the only issue. Up to 30% of world fertilizer exports, including urea, ammonia, phosphates, and sulfur, pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Joseph Glauber of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Disruption in the Strait has already cut off fertilizer shipments, raising costs for farmers, and is likely pushing food prices higher.

“Any countries with significant agriculture sectors, including the United States, would be vulnerable,” Obstfeld said.

“The effects are going to be most devastating in low-income countries where agricultural productivity may already be challenged. Add this extra cost component, and you get the prospect of significant food shortages.”

The United States, now a net exporter of energy, should gain slightly overall from higher oil and gas prices. But ordinary families will feel the pain at a time when Americans are already furious about high costs ahead of November’s midterm elections.

U.S. households pay an $2,500 a year, or nearly $50 a week, to fill up their cars, said Mark Mathews, chief economist at the National Retail Federation. A 20% increase in gasoline prices means an extra $10 a week out of their budgets, forcing them to cut back elsewhere. “If I have to pay more for an essential, then I would reduce a discretionary item,” Mathews said.

If oil prices remain around $100 a barrel, analysts at Evercore ISI calculated, the resulting higher gasoline prices will wipe out for most Americans the benefits of higher tax refunds this year arising from Trump’s 2025 tax cuts. Only the top 30% would still see a gain.

Dilemma for policymakers

The Iran crisis also puts the world’s central banks in a bind. Higher energy prices feed inflation. But they also hurt the economy. So should central bankers raise rates to curb inflation – or cut them to give the economy a lift?

The Fed is already divided between policymakers who think a weak American job market needs help from lower rates and those still worried that inflation remains stuck above the central bank’s 2% target.

“Their minds will easily go to the 1970s,” Johnson said, when conflict in the Middle East and an Arab oil embargo sent oil prices rocketing.

Central bankers are haunted by the memory that their predecessors “didn’t get it right in the 1970s. They thought it was a temporary shock. They thought they could accommodate with lower interest rates, and they ended up regretting that because inflation became much higher.”

Johnson predicted that higher energy prices ignited by the war with Iran are “going to massively intensify the debate inside the Fed” and make U.S. rate cuts less likely.

Cargo handled at Türkiye’s ports reached an all-time high last month, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said on Tuesday.

Ports handled 43.88 million tons of cargo in February, marking the highest level ever recorded for the month, Uraloğlu said in a written statement citing data compiled by the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs.

The January-February period saw total cargo handled at Turkish ports reach 88.34 million tons, he added.

The total volume of cargo the Turkish ports handled last year reached a new record of more than 553 million tons, a 4% year-over-year increase.

The statement on Tuesday said the container throughput amounted to 1.16 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), the second-highest February figure on record after 2024, representing a 13.9% increase compared with the same month last year.

In the first two months of the year, container handling rose 3% year-over-year to 2.24 million TEU.

Foreign trade cargo rises

Cargo shipped from Turkish ports to foreign destinations totaled 10.54 million tons in February, while cargo arriving from abroad increased 8.5% year-over-year to 22.12 million tons.

Total international maritime cargo traffic rose 6% compared with the same month last year to 32.66 million tons.

Among regional port authorities, facilities operating under the Aliağa Regional Port Authority handled the highest cargo volume in February at 7.35 million tons.

Ports in Kocaeli followed with 6.57 million tons, while those in Iskenderun handled 5.35 million tons.

Transit cargo carried by sea reached 5.56 million tons, while cabotage transport totaled 5.66 million tons.

Cement leads exports, crude oil tops imports

Portland cement was the most exported cargo type in February at 980,160 tons, followed by aluminum ore and concentrates and feldspar.

On the import side, crude oil ranked first among cargo types arriving at Turkish ports, totaling 2.58 million tons. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) and non-agglomerated hard coal followed.

By destination, the largest share of seaborne exports from Türkiye went to Italy, followed by the United States and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the largest volume of cargo arriving at Turkish ports came from Russia, according to Uraloğlu.

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