the bottomline
ISTANBUL: Annual inflation in Turkey soared to nearly 80% in July, official data showed Wednesday, with skyrocketing food, housing and energy prices hitting consumers hard.
The Turkish Statistical Institute said consumer prices rose by 79.6% from a year earlier, up about 1 percentage point from June data.
Independent experts say inflation is much higher than official statistics. Economists also say the huge rise in inflation is caused by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox belief that high borrowing costs lead to inflation despite established economic theory.
Turkey’s central bank slashed interest rates by 5 percentage points since September to 14%, sinking the national currency. While the bank has not made further cuts this year, central banks across the world are moving the opposite way, raising interest rates to combat global inflation.
In comparison, annual inflation hit a record 8.9% in the 19 countries that use the euro in July and a four-decade-high of 9.1% in the United States in June.
The Turkish lira lost 44% of its value against the U.S. dollar last year, eroding people’s ability to buy even basic items. The dollar was trading at 17.95 against the lira Wednesday, with the lira’s value some 25% lower than at the beginning of the year. (AP)
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DUBAI: Floating offshore wind platform developer Gazelle Wind Power (Gazelle) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ferrofab FZE (Ferrofab), a UAE-based engineering and manufacturing firm, to establish a Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the Ferrofab Jebel Ali facility in the UAE. This Center is being established to manufacture a Gazelle hybrid modular offshore wind platform, based on Gazelle’s proprietary technology, that can be scaled to support any make and model of wind turbines, including models upwards of 20MW.
“Ferrofab has a reputation for engineering, manufacturing, and execution that is needed to bring our technology to the market at the pace we need to address climate change,” said Gazelle CEO Jon Salazar. “While many offshore wind projects originate from the oil and gas industry, Gazelle’s hybrid floating platform is designed solely to accelerate the development of the offshore wind industry and contribute to reducing the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Having a collaborator with experience in both sectors will allow us to deploy our solution and hasten the move to net-zero successfully.”
Ferrofab boasts a total of 800,000 square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Jebel Ali, which is located approximately 40 km southwest of Dubai. The company has extensive experience in engineering and manufacturing offshore and onshore process equipment and structures for the wind, oil, and gas industries, which will be leveraged to accelerate the manufacturing process for Gazelle’s floating wind platforms and the assembly and distribution to ports worldwide. (AP)
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RIYADH: Urban Company, Asia’s largest tech-enabled home services marketplace, has entered into a partnership with Baheya, the largest salon chain in Riyadh. With this, Urban Company aims to be a household name for beauty services at home by enabling its partner salons and beauty professionals to deliver services like never before.
With quality services that are assured from Urban Company and years of experience in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from Baheya, the home services sector is poised to expand. Aside from the currently offered salon and spa services, Urban Company is also extending its range of services to include hair, lash, and nail extensions.
Baheya, the only salon chain in Riyadh that provides services 24x7, has 250 beauticians offering top services and quality products for over 16 years in Saudi Arabia. Since the two businesses partnered in 2021, Baheya has given Urban Company beauticians and products while also obtaining the highest quality leadership and training for its staff from the platform. Urban Company handpicks the best beauticians from Baheya’s staff and further provides extensive training which enables them to give unparalleled at-home services. The beauticians carry the entire set-up and products from top brands to ensure a complete salon-like experience at home.
On the partnership, Nitesh Agarwal, Region Head, Middle East, Urban Company, said, “Urban Company is committed to offering exceptional, high quality at-home services to its customers across geographies. We are delighted to partner with Baheya in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and are confident that with Baheya’s proven market experience we will be a pioneer in delivering highest quality services to our customers in the region. (AP)