Turkey hits out at Moody’s

Ankara: Turkey on Saturday lambasted Moody's ratings agency after it cut Ankara's credit rating further into junk territory, saying the downgrade raised concerns over the institution´s "objectivity and impartiality".

The agency downgraded the long-term debt rating to B1 from Ba3 and said it maintained the negative outlook for Turkey, in a statement late Friday.

Although the country had a "large, diverse economy" and government debt was low, Moody´s said this was outweighed increasingly by "continued erosion in institutional strength and policy effectiveness on investor confidence".

But the Turkish treasury and finance ministry said the move was "incompatible with the Turkish economy´s fundamental indicators".

"As a result this raises questions over the objectivity and impartiality of the body´s analyses," the ministry added in a statement.

It pointed to rising tourism revenues, falling inflation and a new judicial reform package as examples of "very positive developments that we sadly see are being ignored".