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Turkey: Achieving Results for the Future: Sustainable and Equitable Growth
October 14, 2010-Overview
Turkey has eliminated extreme poverty and is well on its way to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Turkey works with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( IBRD) towards achieving fast, sustained and equitable growth. This partnership has delivered on a number of fronts including macroeconomic stabilization; the development of a clean, sustainable, and reliable energy sector; and improved health outcomes.
Challenge
Today, Turkey is the world’s sixteenth largest economy, with 74 million inhabitants and per capita annual income above US$9,000. Since 2001, Turkey has stabilized domestically and built its international profile, pursuing a foreign policy that stresses harmony in relations with its neighbors. Accession to the European Union (EU), initiated in 2005, remains a firm long-term aim.
Approach
IBRD’s support for Turkey’s development program will focus on three areas: stabilizing the economy to ensure robust growth and poverty reduction; delivering a clean and reliable energy sector; and helping Turkey achieve better results in the health sector.
Results
Through a long and close relationship with IBRD, Turkey has been able to achieve notable results across a range of sectors, namely:
Solid fiscal and debt management, consistent monetary and exchange rate policy, and overhauled banking regulation and supervision have driven growth, improved social outcomes, and cut poverty: read more
view Full Brief-Achieving Results for Turkey’s Future: Sustainable and Equitable Growth
A year of ETF Bestx: strong growth at Boerse Stuttgart
Boerse Stuttgart now the biggest German floor trading exchange for passive funds
October 14, 2010--Only one year after it opened for trading, Boerse Stuttgart’s ETF Bestx segment has successfully established itself among investors. The growth rates in ETF trading show that there are also increasing numbers of private investors investing in this segment: at a total of about EUR 3.9 billion over the first nine months of 2010, revenues were more than 50 percent higher than in the same period of 2009.
And in May 2010 revenues even reached a record of EUR 670 million. Now over half of the more than 700 ETFs admitted to trading at Boerse Stuttgart are listed in the quality segment EFT Bestx.
The reasons for the success, according to Michael Görgens, Head of Investment Fund and ETF Trading at Boerse Stuttgart, are the transparency of trading and the low charges to the investor: “As regards the implicit costs – or the spread – the investor can rely on getting at least as good a deal as at our competitors.” Boerse Stuttgart benefits from working with market makers, who provide additional liquidity. The market makers undertake to provide binding buy and sell prices on a continuous basis for each product listed in the segment.
Stuttgart stock exchange has concentrated on private investors for more than a decade. “Both our trading and our comprehensive information services are tailored to the needs of private investors. Because our trading hours continue right through until 20.00 hours (CET), our investors can respond to investments in other markets,” says Michael Görgens. The introduction of ETF Bestx has further optimised Boerse Stuttgart’s service for investors, by guaranteeing the best prices and the highest levels of security in the execution of trades during normal stock exchange trading hours, between 9.00 and 20.00 hours (CET). Investors also benefit from the transparent cost structure: the variable fee in ETF Bestx is 0.1 percent of the order volume, limited to a maximum of EUR 12.18 (net).
Istanbul bourse dives after breaking record
October 14, 2010--Turkey’s markets were down on Thursday after enjoying an uphill marathon for a couple of weeks, reaching record levels in terms of both the lira and the dollar, due largely to the profit realization motives of investors.
The Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) sustained a sharp drop in the second trading session after reaching a high of 70,820.3 points in the morning. The benchmark IMKB-100 index was 69,657.4 points by the end of the first trading session, or 0.73 percent down compared to Wednesday’s close. The losses only got deeper by the afternoon. By 3 p.m. the index was showing 69,260 points.
Europe switches to Plan B in new China-US climate pitch
October 14, 2010--Europe pushed China, the United States and a host of emerging powers on Thursday to extend a soon-to-expire deal to combat global warming at crunch talks in Mexico.
According to a letter from European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to EU president Herman Van Rompuy, seen by AFP, a "second commitment period" under the Kyoto Protocol that runs out in 2012 should be the target in Cancun.
Neither China nor the United States are bound by the Kyoto package which was agreed in 1997, completed in 2005 with Russia's ratification and established commitments from 2008 to 2012.
Europe split on hedge fund curbs, vote delayed
October 14, 2010--An EU bid to slap strict new curbs on the trillion-dollar hedge fund industry remains stalled, with a parliamentary vote originally due next week now postponed until next month, an MEP said Thursday.
Jean-Paul Gauzes, the European Parliament rapporteur, said a vote to adopt standard regulations across the 27-nation bloc had been delayed until a plenary in November failing consensus within the union.
Belgium, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, "up until now has not been able to obtain agreement from the Council (representing member states) and wants to pursue negotiations," he said.
Deep emission cuts give the EU a head start under the Kyoto Protocol
October 13, 2010-A new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) shows that large drop in emissions seen in 2008 and 2009 gives EU-15 a head start to reach and even overachieve its 8 % reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol. Austria, Denmark and Italy, however, need to step up their current efforts until 2012 to ensure that their contribution to the common EU-15 target is delivered. The EEA report also shows that EU-27 is well on track towards achieving its 20 % reduction target by 2020.
The EEA report 'Tracking progress towards Kyoto and 2020 targets' presents an overview of the progress actually seen in 2008 (and 2009 where data are available) in European countries towards their respective targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Based on aggregated emission projections at EU level, the report also presents an assessment of projected progress of the EU-15 towards its 8 % reduction commitment and of the EU-27 towards its 20 % reduction target by 2020.
view report-Tracking progress towards Kyoto and 2020 targets in Europe
EU wants to open up audit market
October 13, 2010--After banks, rating agencies and hedge funds, the European Union set its sights Wednesday on opening up the company audit market, the accounting business tightly controlled by just a handful of giants.
"Seventy percent of the industry is in the hands of the big four in Europe," said EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier as he announced a seven-week consultation.
"Ninety-nine percent in Britain is in the hands of the big four. We think that such a concentration can provoke systemic risks" to Europe's economy, he said.
August 2010 compared with July 2010-Industrial production up by 1.0% in euro area
Up by 0.8% in EU27
October 13, 2010-In August 2010 compared with July 2010, seasonally adjusted industrial production1 grew by 1.0% in the euro
area2 (EA16) and by 0.8% in the EU272. In July3 production rose by 0.1% in both zones.-
In August 2010 compared with August 2009, industrial production increased by 7.9% in the euro area and by 7.5%
in the EU27.
Eurosif's 2010 European SRI Study is now published
October 13, 2010--Despite the slowdown in economic growth during the past two years, Eurosif’s 2010 European SRI Study reveals the expansion of the European SRI market, now totaling approximately €5 trillion assets under management (AuM).
Created with the support of IDEAM (Amundi Group), BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, the study highlights the scale of the European SRI Market as well as European and National Trends across nineteen countries, including for the first time the Baltic States, Poland, Greece and Cyprus
Some of the Study's most important findings include, among others:
The total SRI assets under management (AuM) have increased from €2.7 trillion to €5 trillion, as of December 31, 2009. This represents a spectacular growth of about 87% since the data was previously collected two years before.
As in the previous editions of the study (2008, 2006, 2003), Eurosif continues to utilise Core SRI and Broad SRI as a means to segment the SRI market. Core SRI (estimated at €1.2 trillion) consists of norms- and values- based exclusions and different types of positive screens while Broad SRI (estimated at €3.8 trillion) encompasses simple exclusion, engagement and integration approaches.
The SRI market remains driven by institutional investors (representing 66% of the total AuM). However, the share of retail investors has increased in almost all the countries covered in the study. Bonds are now the favoured asset class among SRI investors, representing 53% of total SRI assets, while equities have dropped down to 33%.
view the 2010 European SRI Study
ETF Landscape: STOXX Europe 600 Sector ETF Net Flows, week ending 08-Oct-10
October 13, 2010--Last week saw US$457.9 Mn net inflows to STOXX Europe 600 sector ETFs. The largest sector ETF net inflows last week were in Automobiles & Parts with US$168.3 Mn and Banks with US$151.4 Mn while Construction & Materials experienced net outflows of US$21.5 Mn.
Year-to-date, STOXX Europe 600 sector ETFs have seen US$736.8 Mn net inflows. Banks sector ETFs have seen the largest net inflows with US$305.6 Mn, followed by Automobiles & Parts with US$171.5 Mn while Food & Beverage has experienced the largest net outflows of US$148.4 Mn YTD.
The US$10.3 Bn AUM invested in the ETFs is greater than the US$4.2 Bn open interest in the sector futures. The ETF AUM is greater than the open interest in the corresponding futures contract in 18 out of 19 sectors.
