Erdogan goes berserk at Standard and Poor ‘s for downgrading Turkey’s credit rating
Turkey Pm Tayyip Erdogan attacks and slams Standard & Poor for warning about economic outlook and downgrading the country’s credit rating
Istanbul / NationalTurk – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced S&P rating agency on Thursday, stating its downgrading of Turkey’s outlook was clouded by an ‘ideological approach.’
Tayyip Erdogan told at a televised meeting in Istanbul: ‘This is entirely an ideological approach. You cannot fool anybody, you cannot fool Tayyip Erdogan.’
He condemned the outlook revision as ‘very odd’ and hit back at what he implied was discrimination by Standard and Poor, which had improved the outlook of crisis-hit neighboring Greece, while lowering the perspective for Turkey.
The Turkish PM threatened not to recognize the Standard and Poor’s as a credible ratings agency
Standard and Poor’s revised the outlook on Turkey’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to stable, from positive on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the agency lifted Greece out of selective default status in view of a bond swap which cancelled a big slice of Greek debt.
Explaining its view of Turkey, the agency reported: ‘ Less-buoyant external demand and worsening terms of trade [the price of exports compared to imports] have made economic rebalancing more difficult, and have raised the risks to Turkey’s creditworthiness given its high external debt and the state budget’s reliance on indirect tax revenues.’
Turkey’s credit rating down, here is the status of Turkey economy:
The agency added: ‘ We have revised the outlook on Turkey’s long-term sovereign credit ratings to stable from positive, reflecting our view that the ratings are likely to remain at the current level during the next 12 months.’
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek joined the AKP ( Justice and Development Party) government’s criticism and blasted the report of S&P as full of ‘very serious’ errors.
‘ They should first do… correct analyses,’ stated Mehmet Simsek, accusing Standard and Poor’s of having obsessions about Turkey and failing to appreciate the political stability in Turkey where the governing AKP headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan is exercising its third term in power in a row.
Turkey’s economy grew by 8.5 % in 2011 and by 5.2 % in the final quarter, official data indicates.
The Turkish government foresees that growth of gross domestic product will slow to four % in 2012 owing to the effects of the eurozone crisis, but is confident that the slowdown will be a short-term one.
However, analysts worry the Turkey’s widening current account deficit is a sign the economy is overheating and is in for a sharper slowdown.
On Thursday, official data put inflation on a 12-month basis at 11.14 % in April after holding steady at 10.43 % for 2 months.
Turkey’s central bank forecasts inflation to slump to 5 % in 2012.
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