Big winner of falling oil prices worried about Russian economy

While Turkey appeared to benefit from the fall in oil prices which has put Russia in difficulty, the latest developments in the Russian economy may have unintended consequences for certain sectors of the economy. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that every $ 10 drop in oil prices would reduce the current account deficit from $ 4.5 billion to $ 5 billion while Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci claimed that contributions from low Oil prices would be visible by the end of December. Central Bank Governor Erdem Başçı said that a $ 10 drop in oil prices would reduce inflation by around 0.4 to 0.5 percent.
On the other hand, Turkish businessmen are concerned about the Russian economy, which has a strong influence on Turkish exports and the tourism sector.
Considering that Turkey will be one of the countries most affected by the crisis in Russia which is expected to continue for a long time, Deputy President of Turkish Hotel Federations Mehmet İşler said all hotel owners should remain cautious and s ” refrain from lowering their prices. because of fears of the crisis in Russia. “If we lower the prices now, it will take about three years to recover from such a loss,” he said. İşler said that in 2013, Russia overtook Germany to become the country with the highest number of visitors to Turkey, with some 4,131,000 Russian tourists coming to Turkey for vacations. This figure rose to 4,368,000 in 2014. However, İşler further claimed that since October there has been a drop, and although they received a high number of bookings last year, this year has seen a 15 percent decrease in bookings. Meanwhile, according to several articles published by Turkish media, losses of Turkish exporters have reached 40% since the start of 2014, as the ruble has collapsed against the US dollar. In particular, the fresh fruit and vegetable and poultry sectors hoped to increase their shares in the Russian market with the sanctions. However, on Wednesday, five Turkish unions of fresh fruit and vegetable exporters issued a joint statement regarding the “frightening” situation, calling for an immediate solution to cover their losses. The statement said that with the hope that exports to Russia will increase, prices in the domestic market have increased significantly and exporters have had to purchase goods in this price range. The supply of goods from other countries was also higher than expected, and Turkish exporters had to make discounts to sell their goods in the Russian market.