NEWS FROM TÜRKİYE

Hurriyet Daily News - Turkish industrial production unexpectedly increased in October from a year earlier, the first increase in 15 months. The 6.5 percent increase follows a drop of a revised 8.9 percent in September, said the Ankara-based Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on its website on Tuesday. Output was expected to decline three percent, according to the median estimate by 12 economists polled by Bloomberg. From a month earlier, production surged 13.7 percent. “This is an important development”, said Nejat Kocer, Chairman of the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry (GSO). Kocer told the Anatolian news agency he hoped to see similar improvement in the November data as well. “Recovery in industrial production signals an improvement in employment is on its way. With the continuing implementation of the economic measures taken, our chance of entering a new period during the first half of 2010 is increasing.” “There is a direct relationship between the monthly industrial production index announced by TurkStat and the monthly export figures announced by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly”, said Mehmet Buyukeksi, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM). “We perceived the 4.6 percent export increase in October compared to a month earlier, which was an increase of 18.6 percent compared to a year earlier, as a turning point. The increasing industrial production data just revealed from TurkStat supports our finding.”