Moody’s Upgrades Türkiye’s Ratings to B1 on Tight Monetary Policy

A street vendor waits for customers at an underground passage in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 11, 2024. (Reuters)
A street vendor waits for customers at an underground passage in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Moody’s Upgrades Türkiye’s Ratings to B1 on Tight Monetary Policy

A street vendor waits for customers at an underground passage in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 11, 2024. (Reuters)
A street vendor waits for customers at an underground passage in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Ratings agency Moody's upgraded Türkiye’s ratings to "B1" from "B3" on Friday, citing improvements in governance and a tighter stance on monetary policy.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and spear-headed by Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, Türkiye has been implementing a tight monetary and fiscal policy since last year to tackle soaring inflation. Annual inflation dipped to below 72% last month from above 75% in May, which is seen as the peak.

Türkiye’s central bank has raised its main rate to 50% from 8.5% since Simsek was appointed last year.

The country's central bank has recently said it will maintain its tight monetary policy stance until a permanent decline in inflation is achieved. In June, the central bank reiterated that disinflation would take hold in the second half of the year.

Last month, the international crime watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), removed Türkiye from its "grey list" of countries that require special scrutiny, in a boost to the country's economic turnaround plan.

Moody's is the first credit ratings agency to announce new ratings for Türkiye following the FATF decision.

Lower current-account deficit and improvement in the central bank's financial position has materially reduced the country's external vulnerability, Moody's said.

"Earlier concerns over rising risks of a full-blown balance of payments crisis - which had triggered successive downgrades to the B3 rating level - have for now dissipated," the agency added in a statement.

The agency also maintained its "positive" outlook on Türkiye, expecting authorities to maintain its tight economic policy stance for longer.



Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year
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Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Drilling at Kuwait’s Durra Field to Start this Year

Procedures for drilling and construction work on the Durra gas field will begin later this year after engineering studies wrap up later this summer, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s (KPC) CEO Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah told Reuters on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait affirm they jointly own rights to natural resources in Durra while Iran claims a stake in the Gulf's gas field.

Sheikh Nawaf said the company plans to invest 7 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($22.92 billion) on its upstream operations over the next five years.

He also said that KPC would reach a production capacity of 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year and expects to increase that to 4 million bpd by 2035.

Earlier, the CEO of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation told CNBC Arabia that production operations in offshore reservoirs require seven years. “But we expect to start production from Al-Nokhatha field within a shorter period of time,” he said.

The CEO noted that the oil and gas discovery at Al-Nokhatha field supports Kuwait’s strategy to increase its capacity to 4 million bpd by 2035.

On Wednesday, State-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) announced preparations to begin digging six new exploratory wells in the country’s territorial waters, which contains large hydrocarbon resources.

The announcement came after KPC said on Sunday it had made a “giant” oil discovery in the Al-Nokhatha field, with oil reserves estimated at 3.2 billion barrels.