Finance Minister disagrees with Standard & Poor’s

İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency

The assessment on Turkish economy by Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, is very weak and insufficient, says Turkey’s Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek. AA photo

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek reacted on March 2 to Standard and Poor’s (S&P) assessment of Turkey as being the “most vulnerable” economy to Eurozone instability, by saying that S&P’s assessment was both weak and insufficient.

Speaking at the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, Şimşek told reporters that S&P only looked at Turkey’s current account deficit over the last year when making its assessments, and that Turkey’s current account deficit had already begun to narrow.

Furthermore, Şimşek added that Turkey’s banking system surpassed any of its European counterparts and that the country had a strong government and political will.

Deficit problem

“There is a current account deficit problem that stems in part from energy prices and from strong domestic demand, but to only focus on this when deciding that Turkey is the most vulnerable country shows that the analysis is not very substantive,” said Şimşek.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its 2012 growth target for Turkey from 0.4 percent to 2.3 percent, and anticipates 3.2 percent growth in 2013, according to a report it presented at the Feb. 25-26 G-20 meeting in Mexico.

The IMF had earlier said that it expected the Turkish economy to grow by 0.4 percent in 2012, in a report it prepared for the Jan. 19-20 G-20 meeting. The Turkish government, meanwhile, expects 4 percent growth this year.