Moody’s raises Russia’s outlook to Positive over resilience signs

MOSCOW, Jan 26 (PRIME) -- Global rating agency Moody’s has changed the outlook on Russia’s Ba1 long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Positive from Stable and affirmed its long-term ratings at Ba1 and its short term rating at Not Prime (NP), the agency said on Friday.

“The change in the outlook on Russia's Ba1 ratings was driven by … growing evidence of institutional strength. Russia's macroeconomic framework coped well with the oil price shock and with the impact of sanctions imposed to date, and enhancements have been made to the government's rule-based fiscal framework,” the agency said.

“Increased evidence of economic and fiscal resiliency that has reduced Russia's vulnerability to further external shocks arising from geopolitical tensions or from renewed declines in oil prices.”

CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said that the country’s economy deserves a higher rating and that Moody’s rating upgrade witnesses a rising investor interest.

“A positive outlook reflects Russia’s economy recovery, the macroeconomic stability and a rising interest of investors in local assets. Oil price stabilization stemming from an OPEC+ deal and a reasonable monetary policy to stabilize inflation were among other important factors,” he said.

“We believe that Russia’s economy deserves not only the outlook revision, but an upgrade of the rating itself, too.”

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