Economy

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the transfer of 4 percent of the Saudi oil giant Aramco’s, shares to the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The transferred share are valued up to $80 billion. The move is another step by the Kingdom to diversify the economy and move it away from dependency on oil. 

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the American President, Joe Biden, pledged on Friday (28 January) to strengthen cooperation to ensure the energy security of the EU and Ukraine.

The European Commission proposes to support Ukraine with 1.2 billion euros of new financial assistance package made of both emergency loans and grants. The country is experiencing a financial shortage and borrowing is becoming more complex and expensive now that Russia uses threatening language and has deployed military troops and heavy weapons close to Ukraine's border.

Exports to the European Union, were almost half of Turkey's exports, and surged 33% year-over-year to $93.1 billion, enabling Turkey to post a surplus of around $7.7 billion in trade with the bloc. Germany remained the top market, having received $19.3 billion worth of Turkish products throughout the year, followed by the United States with $14.7 billion and the United Kingdom with $13.7 billion. Sales to all the three markets marked the highest annual figures ever.