Moody's lifts some Kazakhstan ratings

Moody's Investors Service said it raised the Republic of Kazakhstan's foreign currency government bond rating and issuer rating to Baa2 from Baa3.

As a result, the long-term foreign currency country ceiling for bonds was also raised to A2 from Baa1 with the short-term foreign currency country ceiling rising to P-1 from P-2.

The following ratings of the Republic of Kazakhstan were not affected by this rating action: the foreign currency bank deposit ceiling at Ba1, short-term foreign currency bank deposit ceiling at NP, local currency government bond rating at Baa1 and local currency deposit ceiling at A2. Similarly, the Republic of Kazakhstan's local currency guideline of A1, the highest rating that can be assigned to an issuer in local currency, was not affected by this rating action.

All ratings carry a stable outlook.

Moody's said the rating action was a result of six years of superior economic growth, medium-long term perspectives for rapid expansion of the volume of oil production and export, and good fiscal performance coupled with substantial growth of Kazakhstan's "rainy day" oil-and-excess-tax-revenue stabilization fund.

Although the economy has been powered by the energy sector, the non-energy sector has also seen substantial growth rates, an important factor in socio-political terms, as most of the Kazakh population is employed in this part of the economy, the agency said.

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