This morning has brought yet more developments in the ongoing currency crises of this summer. An early morning economic salvo was fired by the Turkish central bank the TCMB.
Recent developments regarding the inflation outlook indicate significant risks to price stability.
The Central Bank will take the necessary actions to support price stability.
Accordingly, in line with the previous communication, monetary stance will be adjusted at the
September Monetary Policy Committee Meeting in view of the latest developments.
The Central Bank will continue to use all available instruments in pursuit of the price stability
objective.
The press release was in response to this from the Turkish Statistical Institute.
A rise in general index was realized in CPI (2003=100) on the previous month by 2.30%, on December of the previous year by 12.29%, on same month of the previous year by 17.90% and on the twelve months moving averages basis by 12.61% in August 2018.
What we are seeing here as inflation accelerates is a consequence of the fall in the value of the Turkish Lira as it had been around 10% in the early months of this year. If we look back to last year as well the inflation boost has been ~7%, and if we look at the producer price data also released today we see that there is more to come.
Domestic producer price index (D-PPI) increased by 6.60% on monthly basis, by 25.32% on December of the previous year basis, by 32.13% on same month of the previous year basis and by 18.78% on the twelve months moving averages basis in August 2018.
We get the clearest guide to the driver here when we note what has happened in August alone to goods which are priced across the world in US Dollars.
The highest rates of monthly increase in D-PPI by sub divisions of industry were index for coke and refined petroleum products by 25.11%, for metal ores by 15.33%, for basic metals by 12.07%.
What we are seeing here are the economic consequences of a currency crisis on the real economy, as we see inflation not only considerably up but heading higher as well. This will impact directly on consumers and workers via its impact on real wages. There are other consequences as well.
7 local newspapers in İzmir all cut their Sunday editions this week due to the price of imports like paper ( @06JAnk)
Another is more sinister as there are reports of an investigation into companies which have raised prices. Also the state bank which sold some incredibly cheap US Dollars last week might wish it had not.
But returning to the TCMB it has trouble ahead as we note the last sentence of its press release as of course President Erdogan has publicly stated he is no fan of interest-rate increases. So after a rally the Turkish Lira has been slipped backwards and is at 6.61 versus the US Dollar.
The economic situation
The last few days have given us signals that the economy is not only heading south but it may be doing so at a fair old lick. Here is the Hurriyet Daily News from Saturday.
Turkey’s foreign trade deficit in August fell 58 percent on a yearly basis, according to the trade ministry’s preliminary data on Sept 1.
Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said in a statement that the trade deficit of $2.48 billion last month was the lowest monthly figure in the last nine years…….She added that Turkish exports amounted to $12.4 billion in August, with a yearly fall of 6.5 percent, while the country’s imports declined by 22.4 percent to $14.8 billion.
Care is needed on two counts as there was a longish national holiday in these figures and they are just for merchandise trade. But it is hard not to note the fall in imports which is more of a plummet, and it comes on the back of this reported in the full trade figures for July released last week.
while imports decreased by 9.4% compared with July 2017.
We are seeing a large contraction in purchases of foreign goods and services and this is where initially national accounts let us down. This is because the fall in imports improves the trade balance and via that GDP ( as imports are a subtraction from GDP), so it is a bit like when in the cartoons someone runs straight off the edge of a cliff and hangs in the air before gravity takes over. It takes the national accounts a while to record that people are worse off. On the other side of the coin I think that some help will be provided by export rises and that the August fall was driven by the national holiday.
Looking ahead
The manufacturing survey of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry released this morning was rather pessimistic.
August was a month of challenging business
conditions for manufacturing firms in Istanbul.
Weakness of the Turkish lira led to strong inflationary
pressures, and contributed to slowdowns in both
output and new orders.
They also follow the Markit PMI methodology.
After posting above the 50.0 no-change mark at
51.0 in July, the headline PMI dipped back into
contractionary territory during August. At 46.3, the
PMI signalled an easing of business conditions for
the fourth time in the past five months and the most
marked moderation since July 2015.
The only flicker of good news was from exports.
There was positive news
with regards to new export orders, however, which
increased fractionally and for the second successive
month.
Cots however were reported as rising at a record rate ( since 2006) which after the inflation data should surprise no-one.
Argentina
In Argentina there has been a different response as the central bank has tried to battle a declining Peso with interest-rate increases of which the latest came only on Thursday. Those of a nervous disposition might like to sit down before reading this from the BCRA.
the Monetary Policy Committee (COPOM) of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) resolved Unanimously after meeting outside the pre-established schedule to increase the monetary policy rate to 60%. Likewise, to guarantee that monetary conditions maintain their contractionary bias, COPOM undertakes not to reduce the new value of its monetary policy rate until at least December.
This is a new form of central bank Forward Guidance in that not only were interest-rate raised by an eye-watering 15%, which is only a couple of percentage or so less than even Turkey, but there was also a promise they would stay there until December. A consequence of such interest-rates was noted this morning by the Financial Times.
One of the bond market’s biggest investors has seen its flagship funds battered by the turmoil in emerging markets unleashed by Argentina’s spiralling financial crisis ………Franklin Templeton funds have lost $1.23bn in the past two weeks on just three of its biggest Argentine positions, according to FT calculations.
Those of you who have a wry sense of humour might like to mull how quickly things can change.
Argentina, which increased interest rates last week by 15 percentage points to 60 per cent, emerged as one of the hottest stories in emerging markets two years ago after the centre-right reformist Mauricio Macri came to power.
Or as David Bowie put it.
Fashion! Turn to the left
Fashion! Turn to the right
Oooh, fashion!
We are the goon squad
And we’re coming to town.
Meanwhile Argentinians will be facing soaring interest-rates for any mortgage or business borrowing rather I would imagine in the manner of their rugby team as it faces up to playing the All Black this weekend.
Comment
There is a certain irony in the war that the “currency wars” described by Brazil’s Finance Minister some 8 years ago have hit its neighbour Argentina. But of course Argentina has long had a troubled path, although we return to the concept of fashion as we recall that it was able to issue a 100 year bond in June of last year. The Vomiting Camel Formation for its likely price that I noted on the third of May performed really rather well.
However as we look at Turkey and Argentina in particular we see that the currency crises are causing inflation which will create a recession. How large and deep depends on where their currencies eventually settle as right now things could hardly be much more volatile. Yet they are far from alone as we note that the Indian Rupee has fallen to 71 versus the US Dollar and impacts on Russia, South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia. It should get more attention than it does as after all that is quite a bit of the world’s population. Also we see the power of the reserve currency the US Dollar.