Credit rating agency

There was an immediate reaction by investors to the prospect of the second review of Greece's third bailout being completed in a timely manner, with bank stocks reaping major gains that amounted to 30 percent within just a few days.

Turkey's outlook was revised up to "stable" from "negative" by global ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) late on Nov. 4, mainly due to a gradual implementation of economic reforms. 

The announcement came on the same day as the Turkish Lira slid to a record low against the dollar after the arrest of lawmakers from the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Moody's affirmed Greece's government bond rating at Caa3 late on Friday, while the country's sovereign outlook remained stable.

Japan Credit Rating (JCR) has confirmed Turkey's long-term issuer rating as "BBB-" and its outlook as "stable." 

Turkey should focus on making economic reforms and promoting its strengths rather than blaming credit rating agencies for unfair rates, Timothy Ash, a London-based strategist at Nomura International, said on Oct. 4.

Moody’s ratings agency released a report expressing optimism that Greece would receive the 2.8 billion Euro sub-tranche and would see a growth rate of 1.8% in 2017. The agency underlines that the country faces no immediate liquidity pressures, noting there are only a few ‘light’ debt payments due until the start of 2017.

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.

Ratings agency Moody's cut Turkey's long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings by one notch to the speculative or "junk" level of Ba1 with a "stable" outlook late Sept. 23, citing risks related to the country's sizeable funding requirements and slowing down in its GDP growth and institutional strength.

Standard & Poor's has affirmed its long-term and short-term sovereign credit ratings on Bulgaria at 'BB+/B', with a stable outlook.

"The stable outlook reflects our view that Bulgaria's fiscal flexibility, arising from still-low general government debt, balances potential risks from the financial sector," the global rating agency said in a statement on Friday.

Bulgaria's First Investment Bank (Fibank) has repaid the BGN 1.2 B state aid, which was provided to the bank in June 2014.

The repayment was made in compliance with the plan approved by the European Commission in November 2014. The international rating agency Fitch confirmed the bank's ratings with Stable outlook.