Fitch upgrades Kazakhstan

Fitch Ratings said it upgraded Kazakhstan's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to BBB from BBB-, upgraded its local-currency issuer default rating and country ceiling to BBB+ from BBB and affirmed its short-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at F3.

The outlook is positive.

"Kazakhstan's sovereign balance sheet has strengthened, with sovereign net foreign assets affording a growing cushion against revenue shocks and underpinning the positive outlook," Charles Seville, director in Fitch's sovereign team, said in an agency news release. Fitch forecasts sovereign net foreign assets will reach 49% of GDP by the end of 2013, up from 37% of GDP at the end of 2010.

In addition, the agency said Kazakhstan's mining and oil output expansion underpins one of the strongest growth outlooks among the major emerging markets, thanks to credible projections of increased oil and mining output.

The main risk to the country would be a severe downturn in commodity prices or external demand, Fitch said, and the troubled financial sector continues to be a rating weakness.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.