Economy
One of world’s longest suspension bridges saves Türkiye over $4.5B
One of the longest suspension bridges in the world has generated a combined TL 211 billion (over $4.5 billion) in fuel and time savings for Türkiye since it was launched a decade ago, a senior official said Wednesday.
Osmangazi Bridge, spanning the Gulf of Izmit at its narrowest point, was opened to traffic on July 1, 2026, to become the centerpiece of the 426-kilometer Istanbul-Izmir Highway.
It significantly cuts down travel time between Istanbul and the western provinces by bypassing the long drive around the gulf or the need to wait for car ferries.
Stretching more than 2.6 kilometers (about 1.6 miles) in total, it lowered travel times across the gulf from up to 1.5 hours by road or 45-60 minutes by ferry to just six minutes.
“The bridge has delivered approximately TL 40 billion in fuel savings and TL 171 billion in time savings over the past 10 years, bringing the total economic benefit to TL 211 billion,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said.
Uraloğlu added that the shorter crossing has also reduced carbon emissions by 2 million tons over the same period.
Marking the bridge’s 10th anniversary, the minister said its construction was completed in 39 months.
Uraloğlu highlighted several engineering milestones achieved during construction, saying the bridge contains 109,490 tons of steel, equivalent to roughly 73,000 automobiles.
The steel cables used in the suspension system would stretch 84,518 kilometers if laid end to end, enough to circle the Earth more than twice.
The bridge’s main deck covers 96,364 square meters, an area comparable to about 14 football pitches, he said.
The minister also said the project set world records during construction.
A 22,500-ton steel deck section was installed using the incremental launching method, which he described as the world’s largest operation of its kind for a steel viaduct.
Two additional deck sections weighing 2,300 tons and 2,600 tons were installed using heavy-lift techniques, also setting global records for steel viaduct construction, he added.
Türkiye is interested in joining the European Union’s payments system, and related financial institutions are working on the issue, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Wednesday.
Fidan was responding to a question at a press conference about his talks with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and two other EU commissioners that took place on Tuesday in Ankara.
Türkiye and the EU have been holding talks about the bloc’s 41-country Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) that makes cross-border euro-currency payments cheaper, faster and more secure.
Users in far smaller Balkan candidates Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and North Macedonia, which adopted the scheme last year, could save up to 500 million euros ($568.7 million), the EU says.
Earlier this year, now-former EU envoy to Ankara, Jurgis Vilcinskas, said the bloc had pitched to Türkiye the idea that the candidate country could join SEPA to boost integration efforts and benefit those sending money abroad.
Under SEPA, Turkish banks could stand to lose revenues on transfers, which vary widely based on size. A Türkiye-Europe transfer of 1,000 euros to 5,000 euros can cost 40 euros, according to Western Union.
Europe is Türkiye’s largest trading partner, with more than 200 billion euros in volume. Although bloc membership talks have been stalled for years, both say they want to modernize their customs union and move to boost economic ties.
Earlier this year, Odile Renaud‑Basso, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said SEPA would “basically make transactions cost-free.”
The European Union on Wednesday took a first step toward what it aims to be curbing unfair competition from foreign online retailers such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress by imposing a 3 euro fee ($3.40) on low-value e-commerce imports from China that previously entered the bloc duty-free.
The move is another setback for platforms that used customs exemptions to sell goods at ultra-low prices, fuelling rapid growth and prompting complaints from retailers and policymakers.
The U.S., their biggest market, ended its “de minimis” exemption for imports from China in May and for all imports at the end of August.
The fees, which take effect on Wednesday, will be charged for each customs classification in a shipment. A parcel containing three different types of items would incur a total charge of 9 euros, while a parcel containing multiple dresses or multiple toys would be charged 3 euros.
Duty exemptions on low-value imports have been in place for decades, with the current threshold of 150 euros introduced in 2008. But the number of e-commerce parcels entering the European Union under the exemption has surged, reaching 5.8 billion in 2025 from 1.4 billion in 2022.
“In a different trading world, this made a lot of sense, but that world doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been turned on its head by e-commerce, especially from China,” EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink, who leads the customs reform topic in the European Parliament, said in an interview.
“The exemption was abused and misused on an industrial scale to create a competitive advantage at the expense of EU businesses.”
E-commerce air cargo volumes set to drop
Derek Lossing, an e-commerce and air cargo consultant who runs Cirrus Global Advisors, said he expects air shipments of e-commerce goods into the EU to fall by 10% to 35% in the weeks after the fees take effect, with likely repercussions for global air cargo volumes.
“The question is how effective the platforms are in pivoting to other markets,” said Lossing. “When the U.S. ended de minimis, Europe was a really good alternative that platforms could shift to – but now there’s not a really clear alternative to Europe.”
Lossing said platforms may pressure suppliers to absorb some of the additional costs to limit price increases for consumers and protect profitability.
Shein has been preparing for the change by expanding warehouse space in Wroclaw, Poland, and shipping more products to the EU in bulk.
Neither Shein nor Temu responded to requests for comment.
Consumer prices likely to rise as platforms pass duties on
The 3 euro charge is a temporary measure that is due to be replaced by category-specific duties from July 1, 2028, when the new EU Customs Authority is scheduled to begin operations.
The fees are likely to increase consumer prices as platforms pass on at least some of the additional costs.
AliExpress, owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said in a statement that product listings would carry a “Price includes duties and VAT” label where applicable. For other items, customers would be shown a breakdown of import charges before completing a purchase.
Amazon, which launched its Amazon Haul ultra-cheap service after Temu and Shein’s rapid growth, said 97% of its EU shipments last year were fulfilled from warehouses within the bloc. For products shipped from outside the EU, customers would also be shown import charges before checking out, it said.
Eurozone factory output posted its best quarterly performance since the start of 2022 last month, while Asian manufacturers were lifted by an AI boom, according to business surveys on Wednesday that provide some respite from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Cost pressures did dip, but they remain elevated as supply shortages and shipping delays lengthened lead times, suggesting the energy shock tied to the Middle East conflict could intensify.
S&P Global noted that most survey responses were collected before the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran on June 17, meaning the full impact on supply chains and energy costs is not yet captured in the PMI data.
Inflation in the common currency area was less than expected last month, coming in at 2.8%, but still well above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2.0% target, official data showed.
“The inflation rate in the eurozone fell noticeably in June,” said Ralph Solveen at Commerzbank. “A key reason is that oil prices fell significantly over the past month due to the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”
On June 11, the ECB raised interest rates as a war-related energy cost surge had pushed inflation over 3%, well in excess of its 2% target.
The S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI slipped to a four-month low of 51.4 in June from May’s 51.6 but remained above the 50.0 threshold separating growth from contraction for a fifth month. The reading was just above a preliminary estimate of 51.3.
German factory activity expanded modestly while France’s grew slightly faster than initially forecast. In Britain, manufacturing cooled despite a boost to output from stockpiling ahead of price hikes.
Artificial support
For now, surveys underscore how the global AI investment wave is reshaping Asia’s economic fortunes. Booming demand for chips, data-center equipment and other technology goods provides a powerful engine for growth and acts as a critical buffer against mounting geopolitical and trade risks.
China, Japan and South Korea saw factory activity expand in June on solid demand for chips, computers and other AI-related products, as well as stockpiling by firms seeking to guard against shortages and price rises from the Middle East conflict.
RatingDog General Manufacturing China PMI hit 51.7 in June, expanding for a seventh straight month. It eased from May’s 51.8 but exceeded analysts’ forecast of 51.6. The finding aligned with an official survey on Tuesday showing factory activity returned to expansion last month on robust export orders.
Japan’s PMI rose to 54.8 from 54.5, expanding for a sixth consecutive month with new orders growing at their fastest pace in more than two years. But input cost inflation stayed at a nearly four-year high, a sign of mounting price pressures that could crimp corporate margins and lead to broad-based inflation.
South Korea’s factory activity expanded for a seventh consecutive month although at a slower pace on falling export demand.
“Firms frequently reported that rising raw material prices, alongside difficulties sourcing and receiving inputs due to delays and shortages, weighed on sector performance,” said Usamah Bhatti, economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Factory activity in most Asian emerging economies continued to expand. The Philippines held steady at 50.9 from 50.8, and Malaysia rose to 50.7 from 49.9, surveys showed.
Taiwan and Vietnam also saw factory activity expand. A separate survey showed India’s manufacturing sector expanded at its second-slowest pace in four years as export orders suffered from softer demand in Europe.
Türkiye’s central bank on Wednesday simplified its reserve requirement framework by abolishing the additional lira reserve requirement previously applied to foreign currency deposits/participation funds.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) also said it was raising reserve ratios for foreign currency liabilities.
In a statement, the bank said the move sought to “strengthen macrofinancial stability and support the monetary transmission mechanism.”
Under the decision, the requirement introduced in 2023 obliging banks to hold additional Turkish lira-denominated reserve requirements against foreign currency deposits and participation funds has been terminated. The additional reserve ratio had most recently been set at 2.5%.
At the same time, the CBRT increased reserve requirement ratios for foreign currency deposits.
It said the reserve requirement ratios applied to foreign currency deposits/participation funds had been revised to 32% from 30% for demand deposits and deposits with maturities up to one month, and to 28% from 26% for those with longer maturities.
Foreign currency
deposits/participation funds
Previous ratio New ratio Demand deposits and deposits with
maturities up to 1 month
30% 32% With longer maturities 26% 28%
Inflation in Istanbul eased slightly on both an annual and a monthly basis in June, data from a major chamber showed on Wednesday, ahead of the release of nationwide data later this week.
Consumer prices in Türkiye’s largest city advanced 35.94% year-over-year last month, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) said, thus slowing down from 36.77% registered in May.
Month-over-month prices rose 1.14%, ITO said. This marked a lower increase than 1.53% seen in May.
Driving the monthly surge in prices was the communication group, with a surge of 4.28%, and the alcohol and tobacco group with 4.20%, the survey showed. The prices, however, regressed in transportation (-0.95%) and the clothing and footwear group (-2.21%).
On a yearly basis, education and housing continued to weigh on the overall inflation picture, being the two groups with the highest surge at 52.51% and 46.29%, respectively.
The ITO data comes prior to the official nationwide data due to be released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday.
Inflation in the country picked up recently amid Iran-related war-related pressures, after a long downward streak that saw it drop to the 30s from over 70%.
Economists polled recently by Anadolu Agency (AA) expect Türkiye’s inflation rate to decline slightly in June.
The consumer price index (CPI) is forecast to rise 1.04% month-on-month in June, according to the average estimate of 17 economists who took part in the Finance Inflation Expectations Survey. Their monthly inflation forecasts ranged between 0.81% and 1.77%.
Consumer prices rose 1.71% month-over-month in May.
At the same time, annual inflation is expected to fall to 32.17% in June from 32.61% in May, the poll showed.
Türkiye’s manufacturing activity contracted again in June after a slight rebound in May, as the war in the Middle East disrupted demand and supply, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
The Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s (ISO) Türkiye Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, fell to 47.1 in June from 49.8 in May. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction.
Output returned to decline after rising slightly in May, with firms citing market uncertainty linked to the conflict in the Middle East, softer new orders and higher prices.
Demand weakened further, with total new orders posting a solid decline, and new export business also falling again after expanding in May.
The June survey reversed some of May’s improvement and extended the sector’s downturn to 27 consecutive months. Firms also reduced stocks of purchases and finished goods amid muted demand conditions, the panel showed.
“The Turkish manufacturing sector took a step back in June, posting a renewed softening of production amid muted new orders. Anecdotal evidence from the survey indicated that the war in the Middle East continued to be the principal cause of the challenges facing firms,” said Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Minister Göktaş: We have implemented a common and holistic regulation with our Nursery and Day Care Centers Regulation.
Türkiye says interested in joining EU’s payment system
Harsh reaction from AK Party Spokesperson Ömer Çelik to Özgür Özel: He cannot go beyond being a personnel of the tutelage mentality!
Minister Göktaş: We have implemented a common and holistic regulation with our Nursery and Day Care Centers Regulation.
Türkiye says interested in joining EU’s payment system
Harsh reaction from AK Party Spokesperson Ömer Çelik to Özgür Özel: He cannot go beyond being a personnel of the tutelage mentality!
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