Local firms avoiding eurozone business

ISTANBUL

Rapidly-growing economies may turn their backs to the eurozone in partnerships, Aykut Halit says. Company photo

Some 30 percent of Turkish senior executives have said they are less likely to do business with eurozone due to the ongoing crisis, according to the latest Grant Thornton International Business Report released by Grant Thornton, a network of independent auditing, tax and advisory services firms active in more than 100 countries.

The Philippines tops the countries that have started to shy away from doing business with the eurozone, with 50 percent of executives saying they are less likely to do business because of the crisis, Grant Thornton said in a press release issued yesterday. The southeast Asian country is followed by Switzerland at 42 percent and Turkey at 30 percent.

As for European countries, some 27 percent of respondents from the old continent said they were now less likely to do business with their neighbors in the eurozone. Turkey is followed by China at 25 percent.

“Europe will continue to lose its appeal as a business partner as long as the crisis continues. But the real problem is that rapidly-developing countries may start looking for technological and other support in alternative places, which in return will make it harder for Europe to recover from the crisis,” said Aykut Halit, the president of the Grant Thornton Turkey.

Four in ten businesses globally said the eurozone crisis has had a negative impact on their business, according to the report. More than 56 percent of the Turkish respondents said the crisis adversely affected their business, which is 16 percentage points over the world average of 40 percent.

The ratio of respondents in Turkey who think the global effects of the crisis will deepen in next 12 months is 62 percent, while the global average is 70 percent.

Grant Thornton’s data is drawn from interviews with 3,050 listed or privately held businesses from all industry sectors in 40 countries, conducted in August-September 2012.