Economy
Saudi Arabia to invest $7B to construct 3 theme parks near Paris
Saudi Arabia and France inked on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a 6-billion-euro ($7-billion) Saudi investment to construct three theme parks near Paris, including one likely to be manga-themed, the French president’s office said.
The French presidency’s Elysee Palace said the agreement for the “colossal” project was signed during a two-day visit to France by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
The investment will see the construction of three theme parks near Cergy-Pontoise, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Paris, it said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on X hailed the “unprecedented announcement,” saying the attractions would be a “new global destination.”
The project will be led by an investment firm Qiddiya, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
The parks are expected to create some 22,000 direct jobs, compared with around 20,000 generated by Disneyland Paris, according to the presidency.
The project “stemmed from a discussion between the president of the republic and the crown prince in December 2024” in Riyadh, where they discovered their “shared passion” for manga, “and in particular Dragon Ball Z,” an adviser to Macron told reporters.
Reports had emerged over the summer of plans for a park dedicated to the iconic Japanese franchise in the Val-d’Oise region, though no official confirmation was given.
Macron’s office confirmed that one park is expected to be manga-themed.
The themes of the other two have yet to be disclosed.
The parks will be built and opened in stages, with construction expected to take several years, the Elysee said, without giving an opening date.
The trip marks a rare foreign visit for the crown prince, with Paris emphasizing that he seldom leaves his home country other than for international summits.
It was his first such trip in almost a year.
On Sunday, Macron hosted the Saudi crown prince at the Esports World Cup, while Monday’s talks were also expected to focus on strategic issues, including events in the Middle East.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged on Monday to crush Iran’s economy as he gave a live address on a new pressure campaign against Tehran nearly six months into the war, suggesting “no one” should test Washington’s resolve.
Bessent said that new U.S. sanctions aim to “block every potential source of revenue” for Iran and told nations to cut economic ties to Tehran or face retaliation. He termed the operation as the “Operation Economic Outcast.”
“Around the globe, our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent told a press conference, announcing secondary sanctions measures.
He said Tehran had two choices before them, either “complete global isolation” or the “path to normalcy.”
Bessent made the announcement as Iran’s currency hit a record low.
“We are going to hold everyone accountable, and this is economic asphyxiation of this regime.”
He added that countries not joining U.S. sanctions would “share in the isolation” of Iran, and noted that President Donald Trump is making phone calls to world leaders with requests to stop their interactions with Tehran.
The Treasury Department said Monday that it has “issued determinations against five critical sectors – digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping – that the Iranian regime uses to try to prop up its failing economy.”
Bessent, meanwhile, vowed that any entity “that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system.”
Asked if Chinese banks dealing with Iran could be targeted, Bessent said that: “No one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.”
“Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation,” he also said.
The Treasury chief earlier declared that an “economic D-Day” had begun against Tehran, in a column for the Financial Times.
The U.S. and Israel triggered the Middle East war with a massive wave of bombing against Iran on Feb. 28, sparking Iranian retaliation across the region.
The Trump administration on Monday moved to introduce a new, over $100,000 fee on employers hiring foreign workers through a high-skilled visa program, after facing a legal setback in an earlier effort.
Curbing immigration, both undocumented and lawful, has been a key goal of President Donald Trump and a persistent demand of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base.
The $103,265 fee for H-1B visas would serve as a “revenue mechanism” to recoup the costs of administering the lawful immigration system, the Department of Homeland Security said of its newly proposed rule.
The administration has argued the visa program has been exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers, and in September 2025, it issued a presidential proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee to combat what it called “systemic abuse.”
But a federal judge in June blocked that order, siding with 20 Democratic-led states in a lawsuit that contended the fee constituted an unlawful tax that bypassed Congressional authority.
Another federal judge in December 2025 upheld the same action, finding the president had “broad statutory authority” to address “a problem he perceives to be a matter of economic and national security.” That ruling is being appealed.
In the new proposal, the administration leans more heavily on cost-based arguments, saying it needs to make up the costs of its agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
However, it also acknowledges it would have what it calls an “indirect” benefit: “U.S. employers, if required to pay an additional $103,265 fee when filing an H-1B cap-subject petition, would be less likely to hire an H-1B worker over a qualified and highly-skilled American.”
And it says the new proposed fee “would be in addition to any other applicable fees or payments,” including the fee from the presidential proclamation under legal review. However, this is set to expire this September, unless it is extended.
There will be a 30-day public comments window before any rule can take effect.
There are likely to be legal challenges based on a number of arguments, including the previously advanced theory that the new proposal is a de facto tax, and that it exceeds statutory authority.
Congress created the H-1B program in 1990, and the U.S. currently awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year.
In fiscal year 2025, 70% of H-1B workers came from India, followed by China with 12%, then the Philippines, Canada and South Korea, according to official data.
Amazon is the biggest employer, accounting for more than 9,000 approved H-1B visas in fiscal year 2026.
Past holders of H-1B visas include several prominent tech executives, including SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Critics say the new rules will leave critical shortages in different fields, including IT, engineering, education and medicine.
Türkiye and Qatar aim to lift their bilateral trade volume to $5 billion, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Monday as he hosted Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Sayed, in Ankara.
“Türkiye-Qatar relations have truly made tremendous progress. Our total annual foreign trade increased 53-fold over the past 21 years, reaching $1.3 billion last year,” Bolat told reporters after the meeting.
Trade between the two countries climbed as high as $2.5 billion during preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, largely due to construction projects, he added.
Bolat said the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between Türkiye and Qatar, which entered into force last year, would make a significant contribution to achieving the $5 billion trade target.
Turkish contractors have undertaken 206 projects worth a combined $21 billion in Qatar, he also said.
Around 250 Qatari companies have investments totaling $7.8 billion in Türkiye, spanning sectors including finance, banking, energy, logistics, media and agriculture.
Meanwhile, approximately 1,116 Turkish companies of various sizes operate in Qatar’s construction, services and manufacturing sectors.
Alternative trade routes amid Hormuz disruption
Moreover, Bolat said that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war in the region had created logistics and supply bottlenecks, highlighting the need for alternative routes.
“The current circumstances have shown that alternative routes are greatly needed to avoid dependence solely on maritime transport and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Türkiye is working to meet Qatar and other Gulf countries’ demand for consumer goods, Bolat noted.
Under a transit transportation agreement with Saudi Arabia that took effect on April 15, Turkish carriers have been conducting intensive shipments to Gulf countries through Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as via Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
“We will work together to establish these transit and trade corridors on a stronger and more stable basis,” he said.
Bolat added that Al-Sayed conveyed the Qatar Investment Authority’s desire to expand its investments in Türkiye and said initiatives were underway in this regard.
Türkiye’s exports to Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries reached $41.5 billion in the first seven months, the Trade Ministry said Monday.
That marks an increase of $345.7 million compared to a year ago, the ministry said in a statement.
The OIC was established in 1969 to strengthen cooperation and solidarity among Islamic countries and protect common rights and interests, representing approximately a quarter of the world’s population and one-tenth of global income with its 57 member states.
The Trade Ministry is pursuing a Strategy for Developing Exports with OIC Members, which effectively supports the activities of exporters toward Islamic countries that hold an important place in the global economy.
Under the strategy, which is also included in the 2026-2028 Medium-Term Program, the share of Islamic countries in total exports, currently at 27%, is targeted to rise to 30% by 2028.
Within the scope of the strategy, 21 countries whose economic and commercial data were analyzed in detail were designated as first-phase focus countries, namely Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Algeria, Indonesia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan and Oman.
Türkiye’s foreign trade volume with OIC countries stood at $87.6 billion in 2013, increasing approximately 1.4 times to reach $119.1 billion as of 2025.
Last year, the countries with which Türkiye carried out the most trade among OIC countries were the UAE with approximately $19 billion, Iraq with $14.3 billion, Egypt with $7.9 billion and Kazakhstan with $7.9 billion.
The exchange continued to increase in the January-July period of this year.
Trade volume with OIC countries increased by 2.2% compared to the same period last year, reaching $69.2 billion, the Trade Ministry said.
The data showed Türkiye’s exports to OIC countries increased by more than 0.8% compared to the same period of the previous year.
In the January-July period, the OIC countries where exports increased the most in value terms were Egypt, reaching a total of $2.8 billion with an increase of $522.2 million; Libya, reaching a total of $2.2 billion with an increase of $438.5 million; Syria, reaching a total of $2.1 billion with an increase of $296.8 million; and Jordan, reaching a total of $1.3 billion with an increase of $227.5 million.
Inflation expectations among households and the real sector rose in August, while expectations among market participants declined, a survey by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) showed on Monday.
Market participants’ expectations for inflation in 12 months fell 0.26 percentage points to 23.69%, according to the CBRT’s Sectoral Inflation Expectations survey.
Expectations among the real sector rose 0.30 points to 32.80%, while household expectations increased 0.64 points to 45.58%.
Türkiye’s annual consumer price inflation eased to 31.75% in July 2026, down from 32.11% in June.
Last week, the CBRT adjusted its end-2026 inflation forecast upward to 28% from 26% mainly due to energy and food price pressures. But it left its interim target unchanged at 24%.
The bank also kept its interim inflation targets for end-2027 and end-2028 at 15% and 9%, respectively.
Monday’s survey showed the share of households expecting inflation to decline over the next 12 months also fell in August.
The proportion of households expecting inflation to decrease over the coming year dropped 0.78 percentage points to 16.85%.
Food, energy biggest sources of price increases
Households continued to identify food, fuel and energy as the product and service groups that experienced the largest price increases over the previous year.
These are also expected to see the strongest increases over the next 12 months.
The share of respondents identifying food as the category with the largest price increase fell 0.4 percentage points to 39.3% in August.
Households’ expectations for housing price increases over the next 12 months also moderated slightly.
The expected increase in housing prices over the coming year fell 0.36 percentage points to 32.13%.
The survey also showed a rise in expectations for the Turkish lira’s exchange rate against the U.S. dollar.
The 12-month-ahead dollar/TL expectation increased by TL 1.49 from the previous month to TL 54.47.
Turkish households’ preference for gold increased in August, while the share considering real estate investments declined, according to a survey by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) Monday.
The survey showed that 41.3% of respondents said they would buy gold, up 1 percentage point from the previous month. Gold was the most preferred investment option among those surveyed.
By contrast, the share of respondents who said they would buy a home, shop or land fell 1.4 percentage points to 37.1%.
Real estate and gold have for years been traditional investment options for Turks seeking to safeguard themselves against stubborn inflation.
Türkiye’s annual consumer price inflation eased to 31.75% in July 2026, down from 32.11% in June.
Monday’s survey showed households’ expectations for inflation in 12 months time increased 0.64 percentage points to 45.58%.
Last week, the central bank adjusted its end-2026 inflation forecast upward to 28% from 26% mainly due to energy and food price pressures. But it left its interim target unchanged at 24%.
The bank also kept its interim inflation targets for end-2027 and end-2028 at 15% and 9%, respectively.
Monday’s survey also showed households continued to identify food and fuel and energy as the product and service groups that had experienced the largest price increases over the previous year.
These are also expected to see the strongest increases over the next 12 months.
The share of respondents identifying food as the category with the largest price increase fell 0.4 percentage points to 39.3% in August.
Households’ expectations for housing price increases over the next 12 months also moderated slightly.
The expected increase in housing prices over the coming year fell 0.36 percentage points to 32.13%.
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