Turkey gets another invest note from Canada

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Canada’s international credit ratings agency Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) has upgraded Turkey’s long-term foreign currency credit rating to BBB, investment grade.

DBRS’s upgrading of Turkey to investment grade comes one day after Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) upgraded its ratings on Turkey by two notches from BB to BBB on May 23. Also, Moody’s Investor Services upgraded Turkey’s government bond ratings by one notch to Baa3 from Ba1, and also assigned a stable outlook to Turkey on May 16. Fitch Ratings put Turkey at investment grade BBB-minus with a stable outlook in November.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said on May 24 that the upgrading of Moody’s last week, JCR’s and DBRS’s are the confirmation of the success of Turkey’s economic policies. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Turkey’s performance on its public finance policies was a factor that played role in Turkey’s note upgrade by international credit agencies recently.

However, Standard&Poor’s (S&P), an international credit rating agency, said in a report on May 24 that Turkish companies became more competitive thanks to low-cost borrowing. Ratings agency Standard&Poor’s raised Turkey’s sovereign credit rating to BB-plus from BB on March 27, but the country’s rulers and business circles as all seemed to think that “Turkey deserves more.”

S&P will upgrade Turkey’s note this year, said Ergün Özen, the general manager of Garanti Bank, noting that it might upgrade next year.

Özen also noted that thanks to these recent upgrades Turkey would start to take a share from the large funds, worth trillions of dollars, which come only to the countries that reach investment grade.