The rulers of the rating fleeing Ankara. The American agency Standard & Poor's has announced that it will no longer provide a complete credit assessment service for Turkey. A decision matured following some disagreements with the country's government.
S&P says it will only issue "unsolicited" ratings: this means that it will no longer be paid by the Turkish state, but will only work to meet the needs of investors. From February 14, the agency will withdraw all ratings on individual Turkish debts, keeping only the overall rating. For its part, the Ankara Treasury has minimized, explaining that it has already entered into agreements with S&P's competitors, namely Fitch and Moody's.
But where does so much bitterness come from? Last May, the Turkish government reacted angrily to S&P's decision to reduce the outlook on the country from "positive" to "stable" (the rating had however remained unchanged). Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called the decision "ideological".
“We change our rating on the issuer Turkey to 'unsolicited', given that we no longer have an agreement with the sovereign entity – reads a note from S&P -. However, we will continue to provide a rating on Turkey on an unsolicited basis as we believe we have access to sufficient public information of reliable quality to support our analysis and because we believe there is significant market interest in this rating.
S&P assigns Ankara a rating of BB, two notches below investment grade. Fitch instead raised its rating two months ago to BBB, bringing Turkey to investment grade for the first time since 1994. Moody's rating is just below investment grade, at Ba1.
