BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A setback in Turkey’s negotiations to join the European Union would probably slow and raise the cost of Ankara’s economic reforms, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expert said yesterday. Rauf Gonenc, coordinator of the OECD’s economic survey on Turkey, told a briefing that a fall in the Turkish lira and a rise in inflation during emerging market turmoil in May and June showed Turkey’s continuing vulnerability. “The Turkish economy is still vulnerable both to cyclical changes and to possible political shocks,” he said. Asked what the impact of a possible partial suspension of Turkey’s EU accession talks would be, he said Ankara would likely continue economic reforms “but probably more slowly, at a higher cost and in different ways.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Dubai-based Oger Telecom hopes to become stiff competition for mobile-phone giant Vodafone in Turkey, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Oger CEO Paul Doany told the newspaper in an interview that the group’s mobile phone company in Turkey had a “window of opportunity” while Vodafone was working on improving its operations in the country, it said. A Saudi Oger-led consortium won a tender for Turk Telecom last year, with a $6.55 billion bid for a 55 percent stake. Turk Telecom owns Avea, Turkey’s third-largest mobile phone operator.

Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, the CEO of listed firm Neochimiki, yesterday was declared Greek Entrepreneur of the Year 2006, in a competition organized by business consultants Ernst & Young. He will represent Greece in the World Entrepreneur of the Year contest, which will take place in Monte Carlo in June 2007. Nikolaos Koutsianas, president of Apivita, was declared Self-Made Entrepreneur of the Year and Stephanos Tziritis, CEO of Isomat, Entrepreneur of Northern Greece.

Greece’s Cosmote telecom, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, said on Monday it would issue a 500-million-euro, five-year bond in November to refinance its debt to its parent company, OTE telecom. “Cosmote announces its board of directors approved the corporate bond issue today,” it said in a statement. (Reuters)

Cyprus’s EU harmonized inflation eased to 1.7 percent year-on-year in October from 2.2 percent in September due to a reduction in gasoline prices, the statistics department said yesterday. The 12-month average rate of change from November 2005 to October 2006 over the corresponding period a year earlier was 2.3 percent, it said. (Reuters)

Turkey’s current account deficit was a higher-than-expected $1.921 billion in September, more than five times the shortfall recorded in the same month last year, central bank data showed.