Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The Public Servants Arbitration Board has finalized wage hikes for 6.5 million civil servants and retirees, setting raises far below inflation and poverty thresholds after collective bargaining collapsed.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TurkStat) Household Labor Force Survey, unemployment increased in the second quarter of 2025 while overall employment declined.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released for the first time socio-economic status data at the provincial and district levels, based on 2023. Covering more than 26 million households, the study highlights sharp inequalities across Turkey, measuring income, education, and occupation.
Istanbul’s Beyoğlu Mayor İnan Güney has become the 16th CHP mayor sent to prison as part of a widening corruption probe targeting opposition-run municipalities.
Hakan Aran, head of İş Bank, the country’s largest private lender, said they expect Turkey’s annual inflation to drop to 29% by the end of 2025, with interest rates falling to 35%. Aran shared his predictions regarding the economic normalization process at a press conference. According to Aran, “we may see monthly inflation rates drop below 1% as the normalization process begins in May 2026.”
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey rose 27% year-on-year to $6.3 billion in the first half of 2025, led by inflows from the Netherlands and Kazakhstan, according to the International Investors Association (YASED).
The government’s first pay offer in collective bargaining—10% for the first half of 2026, 6% for the second half, and 4% for each half of 2027—was rejected by public sector unions representing about four million civil servants and more than two million retirees.
Central Bank Governor Fatih Karahan said inflation is expected to stand between 25% and 29% at the end of 2025, and between 13% and 19% in 2026.
ASSAN, one of Turkey’s top private-sector ammunition producers and an exporter to more than 60 countries, is under scrutiny following allegations of illegal staffing, supply delays, fraud, and improper transfer of state-developed defense technologies, according to Cumhuriyet daily.
The Defense Ministry has completed its investigation into the deaths of 12 soldiers who were exposed to methane gas in a cave in northern Iraq during a search operation on July 6, concluding that there was no evidence of negligence or misconduct on the part of the commanders involved in the incident.
Twelve Turkish soldiers died from gas exposure in a PKK-used cave in northern Iraq on July 6, and two more from excessive fluid loss in Hatay on July 25, but key questions about both incidents remain unanswered.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed a 60-day delay in the strike decision made by the Turkish Mine Workers' Union.