Şimşek hails S&P’s rating upgrade as program’s success

ISTANBUL

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has praised the credit rating upgrade from S&P as a testament to the success of the government's economic program.

“The rebalancing of the economy, the decreasing current account deficit and external financing need, the stability of the Turkish Lira, the strengthening reserves and the disinflation process were effective in the rating increase,” Şimşek wrote on X.

S&P upgraded Türkiye’s long-term sovereign credit ratings to "BB-" from "B+" on Nov. 1, with a stable outlook, citing reserve accumulation and disinflation due to the Central Bank’s tight monetary stance.

“These positive developments that we have achieved with our program have also reduced our country risk premium and provided significant improvements in our external borrowing costs,” Şimşek said.

“We are the only country to have our rating raised by two notches by the three major credit rating agencies this year,” the minister added.

Market indicators, which imply a higher rating, indicate that positive developments will continue in the coming period, according to Şimşek.

S&P said the stable outlook reflects Türkiye's balanced risks over the next 12 months to authorities' plans to bring down still elevated inflation, manage workers' wage expectations and rebalance the Turkish economy.

The stable outlook also reflects the rating agency's expectation that the current economic team will persevere with tight monetary policy against the implementation risks associated with the government's medium-term program.

In September, Fitch Ratings upgraded Türkiye's credit rating from “B+” to “BB-” and changed its rating outlook to stable.

In July, Moody's lifted Türkiye's long-term foreign and domestic currency issuer ratings and foreign currency senior unsecured ratings from B3 to B1.