In Brief
Turkish August CPI lower than expected ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s inflation was lower than expected in August due to a sharp fall in clothing prices during the sale season, official data showed yesterday. Consumer prices fell 0.24 percent month-on-month in August, far below a forecast rise of 0.30 percent in prices, the Turkish Statistics Institute said. Consumer prices showed a 11.77 percent year-on-year rise for the same period. The producer price index fell 2.34 percent in the month, also below a forecast rise of 0.25 percent, for an annual rise of 14.67 percent. «August inflation came out better than expected. We see early discounts in clothing and shoes as the basic reason for this,» said Akbank economist Seltem Iyigun. EBRD to approve Bosnia loan in Oct. SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will approve in October a 180 million euro loan to build a highway in Bosnia, a top EBRD official in Bosnia said yesterday. «We’ll discuss the loan next week in London, it should be approved by the board in October and hopefully signed in November,» Giulio Moreno, head of the EBRD office in Sarajevo, told Reuters. He said the loan should amount to «under 180 million euros.» The government of the Muslim-Croat federation, a region that makes up Bosnia along with the Serb Republic, has said it needs 480 million euros to build around 70 km of a north-to-south highway. Energy exploration Bosnia’s largest engineering group, Energoinvest, issued an international tender yesterday seeking partners to explore potential natural gas and oilfields in the Muslim-Croat section of the country. Record crude prices have prompted the government to revive oil and gas exploration plans dating back to before the 1992-95 war, when US and British researchers found oil deposits in the country’s north and south. Energoinvest was the local partner in the original project and the Muslim-Croat federation government ordered it last year to draft a plan of exploration of five potential oilfields for 2008-2017. The company invited firms and investors with a long-term record in natural gas and oil exploration to send non-binding letters of intent within a month from yesterday. (Reuters) Turk power hike Turkish power provider Tetas has sought a 34-percent increase in wholesale prices from October 1, which will prompt a 10-15-percent rise in consumer power prices, a Turkish Energy Ministry source said yesterday. An increase in Turkish power prices at the start of July had exerted inflationary pressures in Turkey. Natural gas prices for Turkey, which are highly correlated to oil prices, have risen steeply. (Reuters) Securitas buys SCP Swedish security services firm Securitas said yesterday it had bought Serbian peer SCP International as part of a strategy to grow in Eastern Europe. Securitas said in a statement the acquired company had an estimated enterprise value of 3.8 million euros and annual sales of around 8 million euros. (Reuters)
