Turkey Hits Back With Tariffs, Retail Sales Strengthen in July
Turkey responded to U.S. tariffs with retaliatory duties on U.S. passenger cars, alcohol, tobacco, cosmetics and other products. Tariffs are scheduled to climb by 120% on cars, 140% on alcoholic drinks and 60% on tobacco products. The Turkish government also took more aggressive action to stabilize the lira, making it harder for traders to bet against the lira and easing rules on restructuring troubled loans that helped drive a knee-jerk partial rebound in the lira this morning. The action comes amid increasing fears of contagion from Turkey’s currency crisis.
The U.S. economic calendar is heavy today with the consumer taking center stage. Consumer spending looks to be in good shape at the third quarter got underway. Retail sales rose 0.5% month-over-month in July, up from a downwardly revised 0.2% in June and well above the consensus estimate of 0.1%. Gains were bolstered by clothing stores (+1.3%), eating and drinking establishments (+1.3%), gasoline stations (+0.8%) and nonstore retailers (+0.8%). Retail sales excluding autos rose by 0.6% or double the 0.3% that economists anticipated. Finally, core retail sales – which excludes automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services and corresponds most closely with the consumer spending component of GDP – advanced a solid 0.5% last month after a downwardly revised 0.1 percent dip in June.
Click here to read the full update by Bank of the West.
Tags: Bank of the West, economy, tariffs