NEWS FROM TÜRKİYE

The New Anatolian - Turkish banks' total net profit in the 12 months to September jumped 35 percent to 11.8 billion YTL, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said Thursday in a quarterly report. The BDDK said "global capital was still interested in investing in Türkiye and rising foreign exchange reserves at the Central Bank reduced Türkiye's vulnerability to financial shocks." It also said consumer spending is on an upward trend and domestic demand is showing signs of strength following a mere two percent gross national product growth in the third quarter of 2007. The banks' total assets also rose 8.8 percent to 543.5 billion lira in September from 499.5 billion lira at the end of 2006, the report said.