Turkey, Russia to discuss food ban next week

By Dilara Zengin and Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey and Russia will be meeting next week to discuss Moscow’s restrictions on import of agricultural products, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Tuesday.

"It does not matter for me when or where we will discuss the issue [Russia's restriction on agricultural products]. No country wins with bans, both lose. One lose more, one lose less. Both countries win when there are no restrictions," he told Anadolu Agency’s Editor Desk in Ankara.

Reminding Turkey-Russia jet row, Zeybekci said that there is a strong will to catch the bilateral relations as it was before the jet crisis and he noted that there is a desire to abolish the restrictions but it could not be achieved yet.

After the Nov. 24, 2015 jet crisis, Moscow took several measures against Turkey, including ban on imports of Turkish agricultural products.

Zeybekci said that Russia's restrictions still remain on $450-500 million of Turkish fresh vegetables and fruits.

Since last summer, Russia has relaxed the measures imposed on Turkey and it lifted ban on some of the products, particularly citrus fruits. However the majority of the sanctions still remain. Russia’s ban on imports of several Turkish products included poultry, tomato, cucumber, grapes, apple, pear and strawberry.

- Impact of referendum on markets

Commenting on Turkey's constitutional referendum on April 16, Zeybekci said that it did not have a reflection on the markets yet.

The positive effect of the referendum over the markets has been observed as of Monday, he added.

"A solid foreign demand for Borsa Istanbul or Turkish stocks, treasury securities and Turkish debt instruments started last week. We had an expectation for gaining value of Turkish liras against other currencies as of Monday. Positive expectations were seen in Borsa Istanbul from yesterday."

Turkey’s benchmark index closed Monday with a 2,743.11-point hike to reach 91,240.45 points, the highest close since Jan. 26, 2015. Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index rose 3.10 percent with a total trading volume of 5.7 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.53 billion).

Zeybekci said that Turkey received $13 billion foreign direct investment last year despite all the challenges it suffered along 2016.

"We will see a permanently positive period over foreign direct investments, increasing demand to Turkish assets, which would help interest rates lower and rise in investments after April 16. We will experience positive effects intensely this week," he added.

- Turkish inflation rate

Zeybekci also cited that the reflection of high level of currency on inflation will remain until May.

“The inflation will not go up in April and its downward trend will not start either. However we believe that by May this downward trend will start reversing and inflation rate will reach to 8.5 percent until the end of year,” he said.

Zeybekci said although everyone expected Turkish economy to grow one percent in the last quarter of 2016, its growth rate was 3.5.

“The average growth rate of Turkish economy was 2.9 percent last year which is much higher than that of EU-wide and the total of Euro zone. Turkey was among the top three of OEC countries and ranked fourth among G20 countries, the minister added.

He noted that the contribution of export to the economic growth was negative during 2015 and 2016.

“2017 will be export mobilization year, thanks to export incentives we launched in 2016. In the first quarter of this year we will clearly see their positive contribution to growth after long years. This is a national contribution which we desire,” he said. ​