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Turkey’s bid for BRICS both strategic and symbolic step, analysts say

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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends the BRICS+ session on a two-day BRICS foreign ministers summit held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.

Sefa Karacan | Anadolu | Getty Images

Turkey’s request to join the BRICS alliance is a move seen as both strategic and symbolic as the Eurasian country of 85 million makes increasing strides in its influence and leverage on the global stage.

“Our president has already expressed multiple times that we wish to become a member of BRICS,” a spokesperson for Turkey’s leading AK Party told journalists earlier in September. “Our request in this matter is clear, and the process is proceeding within this framework.”

BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of emerging market countries that seek to deepen their economic ties. This year, it gained four new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. 

It’s also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations like the EU, the G7 and even NATO, although it lacks formal structure, enforcement mechanisms, and uniform rules and standards. 

Tanto Capital Partners discusses Turkey's BRICS bid

For Turkey, a longtime Western ally and NATO member since 1952, the move to join BRICS is “in line with its broader geopolitical journey: positioning itself as an independent actor in a multi-polar world and even becoming a pole of power in its own right,” George Dyson, a senior analyst at Control Risks, told CNBC.

“This is not to say that Turkey is turning away from the West entirely,” Dyson added, “but Turkey wants to foster as many trading ties as possible and pursue opportunities unilaterally without being constrained by Western alignment. It is definitely symbolic in that Turkey is demonstrating exactly this — that it is not constrained by its good ties with the West.”

Diversifying alliances

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their joint press conference on September 4, 2023, in Sochi, Russia.

Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ankara also refuses to partake in sanctions against Russia — a stance that irks its Western allies but helps it maintain an independent position as a so-called “middle power,” which it sees as beneficial to its relationships with China and the Global South.

To that end, “any new BRICS member is obviously eager to take advantage of stronger ‘togetherness’ of emerging economies in order to reduce dependency on developed economies, mainly the United States,” said Arda Tunca, an independent economist and consultant based in Turkey.

Standing up to the West?

Tunca noted, however, that Turkey’s unique position in the world is a “delicate discussion point” as the country has “serious political problems with the EU and the United States” despite its western alliances.

Turkey’s governing party, which has run the country for 22 years, is “ideologically closer to the East than the West,” Tunca said. “Turkey wanted to hop on the BRICS train before it was late. It is too early to mention that the BRICS can become an alternative to the West, but the intention is clearly to stand up against the West under the leadership of China.”

Importantly, being part of BRICS allows its members to trade in currencies other than dollars. This aims to reduce dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a more multi-polar world. The fact that it’s led by China makes some in the West wary, who see this as a potential win for Beijing. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen) is welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the 11th G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.

Mehmet Ali Ozcan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Economics

UK inflation September 2024

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The Canary Wharf business district is seen in the distance behind autumnal leaves on October 09, 2024 in London, United Kingdom.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON — Inflation in the U.K. dropped sharply to 1.7% in September, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the headline rate to come in at a higher 1.9% for the month, in the first dip of the print below the Bank of England’s 2% target since April 2021.

Inflation has been hovering around that level for the last four months, and came in at 2.2% in August.

Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, came in at 3.2% for the month, down from 3.6% in August and below the 3.4% forecast of a Reuters poll.

Price rises in the services sector, the dominant portion of the U.K. economy, eased significantly to 4.9% last month from 5.6% in August, now hitting its lowest rate since May 2022.

Core and services inflation are key watch points for Bank of England policymakers as they mull whether to cut interest rates again at their November meeting.

As of Wednesday morning, market pricing put an 80% probability on a November rate cut ahead of the latest inflation print. Analysts on Tuesday said lower wage growth reported by the ONS this week had supported the case for a cut. The BOE reduced its key rate by 25 basis points in August before holding in September.

Within the broader European region, inflation in the euro zone dipped below the European Central Bank’s 2% target last month, hitting 1.8%, according to the latest data.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.

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Economics

Why Larry Hogan’s long-odds bid for a Senate seat matters

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FEW REPUBLICAN politicians differ more from Donald Trump than Larry Hogan, the GOP Senate candidate in Maryland. Consider the contrasts between a Trump rally and a Hogan event. Whereas Mr Trump prefers to take the stage and riff in front of packed arenas, Mr Hogan spent a recent Friday night chatting with locals at a waterfront wedding venue in Baltimore County. Mr Hogan’s stump speech, at around ten minutes, felt as long as a single off-script Trump tangent. Mr Trump delights in defying his advisers; Mr Hogan fastidiously sticks to talking points about bipartisanship, good governance and overcoming tough odds. Put another way, Mr Hogan’s campaign is something Mr Trump is rarely accused of being: boring. But it is intriguing.

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Economics

Polarisation by education is remaking American politics

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DEPENDING ON where exactly you find yourself, western Pennsylvania can feel Appalachian, Midwestern, booming or downtrodden. No matter where, however, this part of the state feels like the centre of the American political universe. Since she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris has visited Western Pennsylvania six times—more often than Philadelphia, on the other side of the state. She will mark her seventh on a trip on October 14th, to the small city of Erie, where Donald Trump also held a rally recently. Democratic grandees flit through Pittsburgh regularly. It is where Ms Harris chose to unveil the details of her economic agenda, and it is where Barack Obama visited on October 10th to deliver encouragement and mild chastisement. “Do not just sit back and hope for the best,” he admonished. “Get off your couch and vote.”

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