International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has released a report about the gross debts of local and regional governments in Central and Eastern Europe. In the report, S&P said that borrowing by local and regional governments in Central and Eastern Europe is likely to exceed 7 billion euros with an increase of nearly 12 percent in 2015. The report also said local and regional governments in the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Turkey continue to dominate municipal debt issuance in the region. S&P stated in the report that it counts on an acceleration of municipal borrowing in Turkey. "We believe that the central government will encourage Turkish municipalities to raise public investments needed to support economic growth in the country. As a result, we expect Turkish municipal borrowing to increase by about 16 percent and return to their historical high of 1.9 billion euros - a level first achieved in 2013," noted the report. It has been expected that Central and Eastern Europe municipal debt stock will likely increase by 6 percent to 42.5 billion euros, which is the highest growth rate since 2012, mostly because of the projected appreciation of the Polish Zloty against the Euro.
