Economy
South Africa names Türkiye strategic market amid US tariff hike
South Africa has positioned Türkiye among its strategically prioritized target markets in response to U.S. tariffs that are due to take effect on Aug. 8, a report indicated on Monday.
The country, which had a rough start to relations with the new Trump administration, faces a 30% levy, the highest rate among sub-Saharan African countries.
Accordingly, its government is said to have launched a comprehensive strategy to develop relations with alternative trade partners to counter the tariffs.
Anadolu Agency (AA), citing a statement from the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation, said it described the new 30% customs tariff, applied despite South Africa’s only 0.25% share in U.S. imports, as an “incomprehensible” decision that damages mutual relations.
However, it also noted that South Africa will continue contacts with the U.S. to reach an agreement benefiting the interests of both countries.
“Instead of relationships that deprive our country of the capacity to utilize its mineral wealth and imitate the colonial-era coercive trade relations, we aim to make agreements that promote value-added production and industrialization,” it added.
“Our foremost priority is protecting our export industries. We will continue to engage the U.S. in an attempt to preserve market access for our products,” Reuters quoted President Cyril Ramaphosa as saying separately in a newsletter on Monday.
South Africa is a major producer of precious metals, including gold and platinum, which it exports to other markets, in addition to other items such as mineral fuels, vehicles and plastics.
Moreover, the statement by the ministry noted that the new tariff regime may directly impact South Africa’s economy, making it necessary to turn to alternative markets.
It emphasized that this situation also presents an opportunity to develop new partnerships in markets that have not been sufficiently explored so far.
“In this context, along with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, Türkiye is among the strategically prioritized target markets,” the statement said.
The statement also noted that significant progress has already been made in opening up to markets such as the European Union, China, Thailand, Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
According to official data, Türkiye’s bilateral trade volume with South Africa, its largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, reached approximately $2 billion in 2024.
About $700 million of this trade was Turkish exports, and $1.3 billion was imports from South Africa.
When the coronavirus surged during President Donald Trump’s first term, he sought to downplay the outbreak by urging fewer tests. After losing the 2020 election, he claimed – without evidence – that the vote was rigged.
And on Friday, faced with a weak July jobs report, Trump followed a familiar pattern: He dismissed the report as “phony” and fired the official in charge of the data.
Trump has a go-to playbook if the numbers reveal uncomfortable realities, and that’s to discredit or conceal the figures and to attack the messenger – all of which can hurt the president’s efforts to convince the world that America is getting stronger.
“Our democratic system and the strength of our private economy depend on the honest flow of information about our economy, our government and our society,” said Douglas Elmendorf, a Harvard University professor who was formerly director of the Congressional Budget Office. “The Trump administration is trying to suppress honest analysis.”
The president’s strategy carries significant risks for his own administration and a broader economy that depends on politics-free data.
His denouncements threaten to lower trust in government and erode public accountability, and any manipulation of federal data could result in policy choices made on faulty numbers, causing larger problems for both the president and the country.
The White House disputes any claims that Trump wants to hide numbers that undermine his preferred narratives.
It emphasized that Goldman Sachs found that the two-month revisions on the jobs report were the largest since 1968, outside of a recession, and that should be a source of concern regarding the integrity of the data. Trump’s aides say their fundamental focus is ensuring that any data gives an accurate view of reality.
Not first time
Trump has a long history of dismissing data when it reflects poorly on him and extolling or even fabricating more favorable numbers, a pattern that includes his net worth, his family business, election results and government figures:
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in a lawsuit brought by the state of New York that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans. Trump has claimed that the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were each rigged. Trump won the 2016 presidential election by clinching the Electoral College, but he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, a sore spot that led him to falsely claim that millions of immigrants living in the country illegally had cast ballots. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but falsely claimed he had won it, despite multiple lawsuits failing to prove his case. In 2019, as Hurricane Dorian neared the East Coast, Trump warned Alabama that the storm was coming its way. Forecasters pushed back, saying Alabama was not at risk. Trump later displayed a map in the Oval Office that had been altered with a black Sharpie – his signature pen – to include Alabama in the potential path of the storm. Trump’s administration has stopped posting reports on climate change, canceled studies on vaccine access and removed data on gender identity from government sites. As pandemic deaths mounted, Trump suggested that there should be less testing. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people,” Trump said at a June 2020 rally in Oklahoma. “You’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.'”
While Trump’s actions have drawn outcry from economists, scientists and public interest groups, Elmendorf noted that Trump’s actions regarding economic data could be tempered by Congress, which could put limits on the president by whom he chooses to lead federal agencies, for example.
“Outside observers can only do so much,” Elmendorf said. “The power to push back against the president rests with the Congress. They have not exercised that power, but they could.”
Trump wants ‘own people’ in place
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, took aim at the size of the downward revisions in the jobs report (a combined 258,000 reduction in May and June) to suggest that the report had credibility issues.
He said Trump is focused on getting dependable numbers, despite the president linking the issue to politics by claiming the revisions were meant to make Republicans look bad.
“The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they’re more transparent and more reliable,” Hassett said Sunday on NBC News.
Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who oversaw the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis during the Biden administration, stressed that revisions to the jobs data are standard. That’s because the numbers are published monthly, but not all surveys used are returned quickly enough to be in the initial publishing of the jobs report.
“Revisions solve the tension between timeliness and accuracy,” Kolko said. “We want timely data because policymakers and businesses and investors need to make decisions with the best data that’s available, but we also want accuracy.”
Kolko stressed the importance of ensuring that federal statistics are trustworthy, not just for government policymakers but for the companies trying to gauge the overall direction of the economy when making hiring and investment choices.
“Businesses are less likely to make investments if they can’t trust data about how the economy is doing,” he said.
Not every part of the jobs report was deemed suspect by the Trump administration.
Before Trump ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, the White House rapid response social media account reposted a statement by Vice President JD Vance noting that native-born citizens were getting jobs and immigrants were not, drawing from data in the household tables in the jobs report.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also trumpeted the findings on native-born citizens, noting on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” that they are accounting “for all of the job growth, and that’s key.”
During his first run for the presidency, Trump criticized the economic data as being fake, only to fully embrace the positive numbers shortly after he first entered the White House in 2017.
Transparency is value
The challenge of reliable data goes beyond economic figures to basic information on climate change and scientific research.
In July, taxpayer-funded reports on the problems climate change is creating for America and its population disappeared from government websites. The White House initially said NASA would post the reports in compliance with a 1990 law, but the agency later said it would not because any legal obligations were already met by having reports submitted to Congress.
The White House maintains that it has operated with complete openness, posting a picture of Trump on Monday on social media with the caption, “The Most Transparent President in History.”
In the picture, Trump had his back to the camera and was covered in shadows, visibly blocking out most of the light in front of him.
Turkish banks are preparing to launch operations in Syria in the near future, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said Tuesday, as Türkiye adds momentum to efforts to help its neighbor recover its war-torn economy.
Bolat also emphasized the growing pace in talks aimed at involving Turkish contractors in Syria’s rebuilding process.
He was speaking alongside Syrian Economy and Industry Minister Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar at the signing ceremony of the founding protocol of the Türkiye-Syria Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in Ankara.
Ankara, which supported opposition forces in Syria throughout the 13-year civil war that ended in December with the ousting of longtime dictator Bashar Assad, has now become one of the new government’s main foreign allies while positioning itself to be a major player in the country’s reconstruction.
“Turkish and Syrian businesspeople are coming together today and tomorrow under the coordination of TOBB and DEIK,” Bolat said, referring to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye and the Foreign Economic Relations Board.
“The Türkiye-Syria Business Council is being reestablished, and its founding agreement will be signed tomorrow between Turkish and Syrian institutions at DEIK,” he noted.
Bolat said preparations are underway for Turkish financial institutions to enter the Syrian market. “Our banks are also preparing to begin operations in Syria in the short term,” he added.
His announcement comes days after representatives from Türkiye’s Treasury and banking sector reportedly met with Syrian officials in Damascus to explore potential cooperation in banking, insurance and public finance.
Before the Syrian civil war, Türkiye’s largest lender, Ziraat Bank, had been in talks to establish a bank in Syria with a local partner in 2010, but those plans were suspended with the onset of the conflict. Currently, no Turkish banks operate in Syria.
Following the ousting of Assad, Ziraat Bank General Manager Alpaslan Çakar had told Reuters that the bank would be ready to take on responsibility in Syria if conditions allowed.
Broader reconstruction-focused talks are ongoing between Türkiye and the Syrian interim government, particularly in sectors such as energy and infrastructure, as part of efforts to stabilize and rebuild the country.
“Turkish entrepreneurs led by contractors are eager to play an active role in the reconstruction of Syria, including infrastructure, superstructure and social housing,” Bolat said. “Discussions between business communities and contractors from both countries are accelerating.”
Speaking at a separate meeting following the ceremony, Bolat said they were taking modernization steps to facilitate border crossings with Syria, accelerate trade and enhance security.
He said Türkiye is ready to make the strongest contributions to Syria’s recovery, expressing belief that Turkish companies, with their expertise and experience in manufacturing, infrastructure, banking and construction, will take the lead in Syria.
“Our firms are ready to undertake Syria’s transportation infrastructure and rebuilding projects, especially those involving public-private partnerships and build-operate-transfer models,” Bolat said.
The JETCO meetings, which Bolat said will now be held at regular intervals, will bring together the business communities of both countries on an institutional platform. He also emphasized that they are ready to begin negotiations to establish a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the two nations.
Regarding his meeting with al-Shaar, Bolat noted that they discussed customs regime practices and transportation activities in detail.
“From now on, our trucks will no longer need to transfer cargo or swap trailers at the Syrian border. In the coming period, Aleppo will become a strong logistics hub. Syria’s transportation corridors will be reactivated. We are entering a new era where transit transport to Gulf countries will resume, and both our countries will benefit from emerging areas of cooperation in trade,” he said.
“We approach our customs collaboration with the same strategic vision, taking modernization steps that ease border crossings, speed up trade and enhance security, and we are improving the customs gates opening to Syria.”
Bolat also drew attention to the importance of the energy-related step and noted Saturday’s launch of gas exports to Syria.
Deliveries of Azerbaijan’s gas through Türkiye are expected to reach around 6 million cubic metres (mcm) per day. The current delivery plan foresees exports of 1.2 billion cubic meters annually. Türkiye said there was potential to supply up to 2 bcm per year in the first phase.
The gas will be used to restart power plants in Syria with a combined capacity of 1,200 megawatts.
The Türkiye-Syria Natural Gas Pipeline will meet the electricity needs of 5 million households, said Bolat, stressing the will to further develop cooperation with joint energy and power plant projects in the period ahead.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced its 10th consecutive drop in quarterly profits on Tuesday as a slump in prices hit revenues, adding more pressure on the key driver of the Saudi economy.
Second quarter profits declined 22% year-over-year to 85 billion riyals ($22.67 billion), extending a decline that has been ongoing since late 2022.
“The decrease in revenue was mainly due to lower crude oil prices and lower refined and chemical products prices,” Aramco said in its quarterly report.
Aramco’s falling revenues come as Saudi Arabia pursues a costly revamp aimed at reducing its reliance on oil and pivoting toward tourism and business.
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s Vision 2030 project includes flashy resorts, sprawling entertainment complexes and NEOM, a futuristic $500 billion new city in the desert.
Aramco was trading at 23.97 riyals on Tuesday, 12% below the 27.35 riyals price of its secondary share offering last year.
Since a high point of nearly $2.4 trillion in 2022, when oil prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Aramco has lost more than $800 billion in market value.
Oil prices, currently around $70 a barrel, have remained low despite tensions roiling the Middle East, including the short-lived Israel-Iran war in June.
However, Aramco president and CEO Amin H. Nasser remained optimistic, predicting higher demand in the rest of the year.
“Market fundamentals remain strong and we anticipate oil demand in the second half of 2025 to be more than two million barrels per day (bpd) higher than the first half,” he said in the report.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key members of the OPEC+ alliance announced a production hike of 547,000 barrels per day as they unwind cuts of 2.2 million bpd that were designed to prop up prices.
‘More downwards than upwards’
Last month, Saudi Arabia’s Jadwa Investment forecast a widening of the budget deficit to 4.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year. Oil revenues provided 62% of the budget last year.
Industry analysts widely expected Aramco’s latest drop in profits.
“Oil market forces are more downwards than upwards in the first half of 2025, due to OPEC+ policy shifts and economic uncertainty stemming from the U.S. trade war,” Abu Dhabi-based Ibrahim Abdul Mohsen told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“This has impacted the profit margins of oil companies, including Aramco.”
But he added: “Saudi Arabia has strong reserves capable of defending financial stability and supporting development projects in the short term.”
Government-owned Aramco was listed on the Saudi exchange in the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) in 2019, selling 1.7% of its shares at $29.4 billion.
A secondary offering of 0.64% of its issued shares raised a further $11.2 billion in June last year.
Aramco has also transferred a 16% stake to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi wealth vehicle that is driving much of Vision 2030.
The World Bank has approved $748 million in concessional financing for Türkiye to modernize and expand its electricity transmission infrastructure, bringing the country’s total external concessional funding for 2025 to nearly $7 billion, according to a report on Tuesday.
The Türkiye Electricity Transmission System Transformation Project was approved by the World Bank’s executive directors – and will be implemented by the Türkiye Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEIAŞ) – the report by Anadolu Agency (AA) said.
As part of the project, approximately $748 million in financing will be provided to TEIAŞ, backed by a repayment guarantee from the ministry.
The financing includes $708 million in loans from the World Bank, $38 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and $2 million in grant support under the CTF framework.
The funds are backed by a repayment guarantee from the Treasury and Finance Ministry.
The project aims to eliminate operational constraints in Türkiye’s electricity transmission system and expand the national transmission ring.
It will also enhance infrastructure to connect new power generation facilities, particularly those based on renewable energy sources, to the grid.
The initiative is part of Türkiye’s broader efforts to strengthen energy security and reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels by promoting domestic renewable energy production.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek welcomed the new agreement, highlighting the productive cooperation between Türkiye and the World Bank, especially in the energy sector.
“This successful partnership will continue in the upcoming period,” Şimşek said.
“We are maintaining our efforts within the framework of our economic program, which ultimately aims for sustainable prosperity. In this regard, we are increasing electricity generation from renewable sources and our support for public investments will continue decisively to reduce dependence on imported energy.”
Inflation in Türkiye dropped more than expected in July to reach the lowest level in almost four years, according to data on Monday that officials say reinforces official forecasts that price growth will slow further by year-end.
Consumer price inflation softened to 33.52% from 35.05% in June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said. That was the lowest rate since November 2021, when prices had risen 21.31%. The rate was forecast to slow to 34.05%.
“Inflation is at the lowest level in 44 months,” Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, adding that the rate had dropped by 28.3 percentage points in the past 12 months.
Şimşek said that the disinflation is in line with targets and that year-end inflation will be within the central bank’s forecast range.
Month-over-month, inflation was 2.06%, driven by what Şimşek said were temporary and seasonal factors. In June, the monthly consumer price index was 1.37%.
The annual price growth in food and nonalcoholic beverages eased to 27.95% from 30.2%. Similarly, price growth in housing and utilities moderated to 62.01% from 65.54%.
Alongside housing, the yearly surge in prices was led by education, with 75.5%, and health, with 37.49%.
The lowest rates were posted in clothing and footwear with a 10.67% increase, communications at 19.62% and transport at 26.57%.
For the first time in over three years, service inflation fell below 50%, Şimşek said in a post on the social media platform X.
“The decline in inflation will enhance predictability, contributing to further improvement in domestic financial conditions and the investment climate,” he noted.
“We will continue to resolutely implement our program to achieve lasting price stability, our primary priority.”
More than a week ago, the Turkish central bank cut its key policy rate by 300 basis points and relaunched an easing cycle, while saying that leading indicators suggested a temporary rise in monthly inflation in July due to month-specific factors.
A midyear hike in fuel and tobacco prices, as well as a rise in natural gas prices, had been expected to drive monthly inflation.
Transport prices rose 2.89% month-over-month and alcoholic drinks and tobacco prices rose 5.69%, the data showed. Housing prices were up 5.78%.
Cevdet Yılmaz, the Turkish vice president, said the decline in annual inflation continues to be “significant.”
Inflation has dropped by approximately 42 percentage points since it peaked at more than 75% in May last year.
“This outlook demonstrates the effectiveness of our program and that our policies have restored balance to the economy,” Yılmaz wrote on X.
The central bank’s year-end inflation midpoint estimate currently stands at 24%, in a forecast range of 19% to 29%.
With strong coordination, structural transformation, determined implementation and continued predictability in the economy, Yılmaz said Türkiye aims to reduce inflation to the 20% range by the end of the year and permanently increase the well-being of the nation within price stability.
“We will continue to pursue balanced growth within stability, increase employment, and boost exports through investments that enhance value added and productivity,” he added.
Another report from the statistical office on Monday showed that producer price inflation eased slightly to 24.19% in July from 24.45% a month ago.
Prices of mining and quarrying climbed 28.3%, and manufacturing reported a 24.02% rise.
Producer prices of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning grew 22.1% and surged 55.74% for water supply.
Month-over-month, producer prices moved up 1.73% after rising 2.46% in the prior month.
Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) slapped a 1-million-euro ($1.16-million) fine on Chinese online fast fashion retailer Shein on Monday, arguing it misled customers about the environmental impact of its products.
It is Shein’s second financial sanction by a European competition authority in less than a month, following a 40 million euro fine by France on July 3 for offering fake discounts and making misleading environmental claims.
The Italian fine was imposed on Infinite Styles Services Co. Limited, a Dublin-based company that operates Shein’s website in Europe, following an investigation by AGCM launched last September.
In a statement, Shein said it has cooperated fully with AGCM and took immediate action to address the concerns raised.
AGCM said the environmental sustainability and social responsibility messages on Shein’s website “were sometimes vague, generic and/or overly emphatic and in other cases omitted and misleading.”
Shein’s claims on circular system design and product recyclability “were found to be false or at the very least confusing,” and the green credentials of its ‘evoluSHEIN by design’ collection were overstated, the regulator said.
Shein promotes the ‘evoluSHEIN by design’ collection as clothes made using more sustainable and responsible manufacturing.
AGCM stated that consumers could be misled into thinking that the collection was made from fully recyclable materials, “a fact that, considering the fibres used and currently existing recycling systems, is untrue.”
Shein, in its statement, said: “We have strengthened our internal review processes and improved our website to ensure that all environmental claims are clear, verifiable and compliant with regulations.”
AGCM also took issue with Shein’s “vague and generic” commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050, noting that Shein’s emissions increased in 2023 and 2024.
The Italian regulator said its overall assessment was influenced by an “increased duty of care” falling on Shein “because it operates in a highly polluting sector and with highly polluting methods.”
AGCM is responsible for consumer protection as well as competition.
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