Turkey's response to the Moody's decision

Credit ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Turkey's sovereign credit rating to non-investment grade.

What does that mean? This is an issue for economists and I am not an economist.

So why am I writing about this subject? I do so because I find the statement after the decision by Mehmet Şimşek, the deputy prime minister responsible for the economy, very important.

"The best answer we can give to rating agencies is to speed up structural reforms and maintain fiscal discipline. We should not stop! We'll go on with the reforms," Şimşek wrote on Twitter after the Moody's downgrade.

He has not engaged in polemics over the Moody's decision and instead prefers to give messages of reform to both domestic and foreign public opinion.

What's on the agenda?

But despite Şimşek's words, the issue of economic reform is the weakest one on the public's agenda.

To what degree are we hearing about reforms from politicians shaping public opinion these days?

Of course, the July 15 failed coup was not just any ordinary coup attempt. We certainly need to continue to talk in depth and properly analyze this calamity. 

But it would be a huge mistake to forget or postpone Turkey's important long-term problems like the economy, the law and institutional governance. 

Obviously the state's relevant institutions are dealing with the economy, but this is not an automatic button. You need the motivation of society for economic improvement. No reform can achieve the expected outcome without investors and without the confidence and enthusiasm of workers.

Just like former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Şimşek is an economist whose expertise is trusted both inside and outside Turkey....