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Weekly Lists
May 17, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 27
bne:Credit Turkey’s Arkas Holding
secures $800mn refinancing loan from 18 banks led by Yapi Kredi
Poland’s rate setters hold, dismissing concerns of April rise in inflation
Turkey’s Arkas Holding said on April 15 it has secured an $800mn refinancing loan from 18 banks headed by Yapi Kredi.
The loan has a one-year grace period for a total maturity of five years, it added. The lenders also include Turkey’s Vakif Bank , Ziraat Bank, Akbank Garanti Bank and Is Bank.
Arkas provides port operations and logistics services, and also operates in the automotive and tourism sectors.
Turkey’s banking industry is a somewhat fraught environment presently, with the country attempting to avoid a reoccurrence of the currency crisis that broke out last summer, causing a collapse in demand that has pulled the economy into a recession.
Poland’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) left interest rates at their current record low of 1.5% on May 15, once again hinting that any tightening of monetary policy might be a long time coming, possibly not before 2022, when the current term of the MPC ends.
In what has become a routine, the MPC said in a statement that fast economic growth accompanied by only moderate inflation provides no premises for a change in monetary policy.
CPI growth accelerated to 2.2% y/y in April, adding 0.5pp to the annual expansion recorded in March, Poland’s stats office GUS reported on the same day.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Uzbekistan’s long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings (IDR) at ‘BB-’ with a Stable outlook.
Uzbekistan’s ratings “balance a robust sovereign balance sheet, low government debt and a record of high growth relative to rating peers against high commodity dependence, high inflation and structural weaknesses in terms of low GDP per capita and weak institutional and governance levels relative to rating peers”, Fitch said.
The rating agency also noted that Uzbek authorities remain committed to greater exchange rate flexibility and inflation reduction following the liberalisation of the Uzbek currency.
Fitch expects inflation to average 15.2% in 2019, down from 17.9% in 2018, and slow further 13.5% in 2020.
Fitch affirms Uzbekistan’s IDRs at ‘BB-’ with a Stable outlook