Half of Turkish Firms in Red as Tight Monetary Policy Bites

Turkish companies that once backed the central bank’s return to orthodox monetary policy are now reporting widespread losses, as borrowing costs near 50% and fears of a hard landing grow.

Of the 539 companies that disclosed first-quarter earnings, 269 reported net losses, according to Bizim Menkul brokerage, up from 206 a year earlier. Meanwhile, trailing 12-month profit margins, a measure of a company’s profit relative to its revenue, for the benchmark BIST 100 Index fell to 4.1% at the end of March. That’s the lowest point since the final quarter of 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.