S&P dashes Turkey’s hopes, again
Standard & Poor's defies expectations for a positive revision of Turkey’s economic outlook, adding fresh chill to its troubled relations with Ankara.
Turkey’s relations with Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have been marred by tensions since 2012, when the credit-rating agency dealt Ankara a major blow. Here's the story of how the two sides became at loggerheads:
The Turkish economy grew 8.5% in 2011, the highest growth rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the second-highest after China in the G-20 group of industrialized nations. The government expected a rating upgrade. But in a move that shocked Ankara, S&P downgraded Turkey’s outlook from “positive” to “stable” on May 1, 2012. Government officials responded in the harshest terms, scrambling to punish S&P.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first to signal that Ankara would cancel S&P’s contract with the Turkish treasury. Furious, he grumbled, “The figures speak for themselves. The level of production, export and growth is self-evident. So, even if you lower the grade to ‘stable’ no one would buy it. I no longer recognize you as a credit-rating agency.” Erdogan went as far as to claim, “Turkey will set up its own credit-rating agency.”
Then Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said, “S&P has shot itself in the foot and lost its credibility.”
