Japan Gives Russia an A for Liabilities
Russia has been awarded its first Japanese credit rating which is higher than marks from other international agencies. Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin says the A score in Japan will give a great boost to Japanese investments in Russia. Another Japanese rating agency, R&I, however, is not ranking Russian liabilities yet.
Japanese Credit Rating Agency on Friday awarded Russia with its first sovereign rating in the country. Russia’s foreign currency liabilities got an A-/Stable while ruble obligations were ranked as A/Stable in the first ever A sovereign rating mark for Russia. The possibility of this event was first rumored during the official visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to Japan earlier this month.
Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin called it significant news. Foreign capital inflow in Russia this year will be close to the 2006 level, or $40 billion, he says. “Big Japanese capital will be encouraged to come to Russia, boosting foreign investments,” the official said adding that Japan is a country which does not invest enough in Russia.
Indeed, Japan invested as little as $2.725 billion in Russia in 2006, which is 1.9 percent of the total accumulated investments, according to official statistics. Investment analysts, meanwhile, point out to a growing interest to Russian liabilities from Asian investors.
JCR is the only Japanese firm to rank Russia so far. A larger local agency R&I does not list Russia. Other international agencies such as S&P and Moody’s rank Russia as BBB+. Still, there is a hope that S&P, Moody’s and Fitch will follow JCR’s example and upgrade Russia’s rating, says Konstantin Vyshkovsky of the Finance Ministry. Fitch, however, said last week it has not plans to review Russia’s rating now. Analysts at S&P and Moody’s issued similar statements earlier this year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 19, 2007
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