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Minister: Fitch’s rating hike confirms economy’s resilience
Other rating agencies will also issue similar upgrade decisions in the days ahead, he claimed.
Commenting on recent economic developments during his speech at a ceremony to celebrate the start of Temsa’s export of its Avenue bus to Azerbaijan, Germany and Britain on Thursday in İstanbul, he recalled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks last year -- at the dawn of the crisis -- that the crisis will pass Turkey by without seriously rocking it.
Unfortunately, there have been some circles who failed to understand this claim or who opted to misinterpret it. Some people, those who wanted the Turkish economy to collapse, its banking and finance sectors to melt away and millions of people to lose their jobs, failed to pay enough attention to Erdoğan’s remarks.”
When reminded of his previous remarks about Fitch, in which he claimed the rating company had lost its credibility, the minister said, “We will say they are correct when they do it the right way, and we will criticize them when they get it wrong.”
Fitch Ratings increased Turkey’s long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to BB+ from BB-; the long-term local currency IDR to BB+ from BB; and its country ceiling to BBB- from BB. Edward Parker, the head of emerging Europe in Fitch’s Sovereigns team, said the “upgrade reflects Turkey’s relative resilience to the severe stress test of the global financial crisis and some easing in prior acute constraints related to inflation, external finances and political risk.”
Çağlayan said the automotive sector has always been of utmost importance for Turkey, especially given its extraordinary performance in exports. Turkey has rapidly become a global center of interest for auto investments as many multinational companies rushed to invest in the country’s high auto market potential. Turkey will soon become one of the most important bases in auto manufacturing, he asserted, adding that this would have already happened had the crisis not erupted last year. In the past 11 months, the sector earned $11 billion from sales abroad, Çağlayan noted. In this context, the minister argued, Temsa has risen as a distinctive success story selling 75 percent of its total production to export markets.
Following the minister, Sabancı Holding Chairwoman Güler Sabancı addressed the audience to offer gratitude to the government for its incentives in research and development. She also thanked Temsa’s engineers and designers for their efforts in developing new products.
Temsa’s Avenue mass transport vehicle has an environment-friendly engine, a high roof, a wide interior and is fitted with a powerful air-conditioning system. It is nearly 800 kilograms lighter than the competing models of its rivals. It is manufactured in four types depending on engine: Euro4, Euro5 Diesel, CNG and Hybrid.
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