Al Monitor: Erdogan loses his closest friends
A report by the US Al Monitor website said on Saturday that Qatar had shirked its commitment to invest 15 billion in Turkey, which was at the height of the Turkish currency crisis last year, and caused great disappointment in Ankara, and the depth of the wounds of the Turkish economy is the withdrawal of Qatari investors from Turkey despite the economic crisis Which suffer from Ankara.
The report said that, it seems that the cold winds have struck the warm relations between the two friends, Qatar and Turkey, in reference to the mass escape of Qatari funds from Turkey amid the economic crisis suffocating Ankara.
More than $ 4.6 billion worth of country-specific investments came out of the Istanbul Stock Exchange during the first five months of this year, according to figures released by the Central Securities Center of Turkey and published by Turkish “Dunia” financial daily newspaper.
The total portfolios held by Qatari investors stood at 10.2 billion Turkish lira ($ 1.8 billion) in May, down more than 30 percent ($ 700 million) from 14.7 billion lira ($ 2.5 billion) in December.
Qatar’s shares fell by $ 38 million during the first four months of this year, after estimating $ 35 million in the total of $ 3.2 billion in the first four months of this year, of which $ 1.9 million was invested In real estate, in the same period of 2018 foreign direct investment from Qatar reached $ 73 million.
Total major Qatari investments known in Turkey are about $ 6 billion, all of which date back to 2018, including $ 2.9 billion invested in Finansbank, $ 1.2 billion in Digiturk space, $ 770 million in Boyner Holding, $ 654 million ABANK, $ 470 million in the Panfeet poultry company and $ 125 million in BMC for the armored car industry.
In addition, there are about 120 active Qatari companies in Turkey. However, the volume of known investments doesn’t amount to the figure pledged by Qatar.
In a first step after a pledge of $ 15 billion, the central Turkish and Qatari banks signed a currency swap agreement in August under which they exchanged $ 3 billion in swaps.
But an interbank currency swap cannot be considered an investment. According to Ughur Gorsis, a well-known Turkish economist, the process did not exceed a limited increase in foreign reserves at the Turkish central bank.
Gorsis said he believed the Qatari pledge of $ 15 billion pledged was a “gesture” of solidarity and was indeed a long-term declaration of intent.
