Şimşek to meet with international investors

ISTANBUL

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek will hold meetings with international investors this month.

The itinerary includes an investor meeting organized jointly by Citigroup and Bank of America in London on Oct. 4-5, officials from the Turkish Treasury told Bloomberg.

Later in the month, Şimşek will travel to Marrakech to attend the International Monetary Fund World Bank annual meetings on Oct. 11-14.

The minister will also deliver a speech at an investor meeting in Paris on Oct.19.

Şimşek is also expected to embark on a second tour of Gulf countries at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Central Bank Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan is expected to make a presentation at parliament’s planning and budget commission on Oct. 3 after lawmakers return from a recess.

According to the Central Bank Law, the governor should brief members of the commission on the monetary policies and the activities of the bank.

At the presentation Erkan is expected to talk about the inflation outlook, the state of the Turkish economy and the bank’s monetary policies as well as the developments concerning the FX-protected deposit accounts scheme, known as KKM.

The Central Bank has hiked its main policy rate by 2,150 basis points since June and started to roll back the KKM scheme.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings on Sept. 29 raised the outlook on Türkiye’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to stable from negative and affirmed the credit rating at “B.”

The new economic team can rebalance Türkiye’s economy away from external debt financed consumption and toward more balanced external and fiscal accounts, as well as more acceptable levels of inflation, the rating agency said in a statement.

In September, ratings agency Fitch also upgraded the country’s foreign currency outlook to stable and affirmed its rating at "B.”