EconNews Roundup

Economic impact of the tensions with Israel: I guess my friend was not the only one burning braincells on this issue. Despite the title, the article is mainly on tourism. And I should add that there are a lot of externalities unaccounted for. For example, I was planning to go to Club Med Kemer in September, and if the Israeli chicks are not around, my utility will be far less. Hmmm, a reader recently noted, as a comment to a post, that this blog was getting less and less serious and increasingly more similar to the hollow conversations one tends to hear in local coffee houses. I guess I am now going below the coffee house level, but what the heck:) Note also that Today's Zaman adopts a different view (or rather his interviewees do) than the Daily News on the impact to tourism.

Istanbul May inflation slows to 10.6%: Why do we care about Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICC) figures? Because they are the best predictors of official inflation statistics out there. And if you are wondering how accurate they are, I am happy to serve, compliments of my friends at Turkey Data Monitor, who have made getting this kind of data a walk in the park:

Celtic tiger rising to its feet: This post should be about Turkish news, but I thought the Econ. editors chose well in including this piece to the paper. I think the strong economic signs we are seeing in Ireland have been mainly ignored. Also, having praised Ireland's fiscal efforts late last year, I am glad to have been proven right:)

Turkish IPOs shelved: Although not for the reason my friend was suggesting more than a month ago. But no one expected such a jittery May...

April trade deficit doubles: One point the article does not mention is the implications of the latest figures for the pace of recovery. Since they are released quite early compared to most other indicators, trade statistics provide sort of a first look to the economy. The breakdown of imports at the BEC classification is especially useful for getting an early glimpse of industrial production and GDP:

My own two cents: I had forwarded this piece to the Econ. editors at the Daily News more than a month ago, so I was very surprised when it finally made its way to the paper a couple of days ago. BTW, the article gives a decent summary, but if you want to have a look at the original piece, it is here.

Martin Wolf coming back to Istanbul: Compliments of Garanti Bank. I had chatted with him, along with a journalist from the Daily News, back in October at the IMF-World Bank meetings. You can see the summary interview here- the emphasis is on summary because he told many more things, but somewhat we ended up with an executive summary:( BTW, you can post questions to Martin or the other guy (Man, I am rude) at the conference web site. I did pose a question, to Martin, naturally. I should have saved my question, but I was basically asking his take on the future of EU, as an economic and political entity, based on the latest developments- including his thoughts on membership procedures. I can probably follow the conference as a journalist, so I didn't need to submit a question to gain an invitation, but if you do, feel free to go there and pose your question.