Turkey to raise credit rating again: Deputy PM

ANKARA

Turkey will push to raise its credit rate again following Moody’s downgrade from Baa3 to Ba1 last week, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Thursday.

Speaking at Anadolu Agency's Editors' Desk in Ankara, Simsek, who is responsible for Turkey’s economy, said Moody’s rate cut is "not the end of the world".

"Moody's downgrade rating [is a] serious matter, [but] it is not the end of the world because investors look at Moody's, S&P, and Fitch" – three ratings agencies, not just one – Simsek said.

"We will make extra efforts to raise the credit rating again," he added.

Simsek said the deadly July 15 defeated coup was not the cause of the downgrade, but rather ongoing structural problems, which he said, "Turkey will resolve".

"If the country rapidly implements structural reforms within one or two years [then] its outlook will turn positive and a rating upgrade will follow," Simsek said.

Simsek also said the Turkish economy has proved itself extremely resilient to rate cut shocks compared to its peers facing similar situations.

"There are Russia and Brazil, whose rates were cut recently. The reactions of the Brazilian and Russian markets to the rate cuts were much sharper than Turkey’s," he said.

"The much more limited impact of the rate cut on Turkish markets shows that Turkey's economic fundamentals are stronger than other emerging economies’," he added.

On perceptions of Turkey abroad, Simsek stated that reality is quite different from the outlook of some.

"There has been some deterioration of Turkey's international image in recent years. But in reality Turkey is more powerful than its image abroad," Simsek said, blaming efforts of the FETO terrorist group, geopolitical tension in the region, and sectarian conflict within Turkey’s borders as the main culprits.

Simsek also argued that reforms are needed to Turkey’s justice system to ensure it works properly and doesn’t become a tool of FETO, which is accused of staging the July 15 defeated coup, as many FETO members were detained after the foiled coup for taking orders from their organization instead of their legal superiors.

Turkey’s government says that the foiled coup, which left over 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, including the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.