Moody's maintains positive outlook on Ukraine's ratings

Moody’s Investors Service announced on Friday it maintained Ukraine’s key credit ratings that were under review. Moody’s said the positive outlook applies to the B1 foreign and local-currency government bond ratings, the country’s Ba3 foreign-currency ceilings for bonds and the B2 country ceiling for foreign currency bank deposits. The A3 (stable outlook) local currency country ceiling and Baa1 (stable outlook) local currency bank deposit ceiling were affirmed. Also affirmed are the Not Prime short-term ratings for country ceilings for foreign currency bonds and bank deposits. Olexander Klymchuk: The decision to keep a positive outlook takes into account the much-improved sustainability of the government’s debt metrics and relatively consistent fiscal policy. But Moody’s is concerned about political and economic uncertainty, which prevents an upgrade. Following the logic of Moody’s statement, we expect that an upgrade can take place after 1Q09.