S&P cuts Suriname rating

Standard & Poor's said it lowered its long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on the Republic of Suriname to SD from B-. S&P also affirmed its B long-term local currency sovereign credit rating on the republic.

The outlook on the long-term local currency rating remains stable.

According to S&P credit analyst Olga Kalinina, the rating actions are based upon the government's failure to make full payments on the credit lines extended in 1997 by Banco Exterior de Espana ($15.6 million) and Banco Santander ($22.3 million).

"The government is in arrears because it decided not to make full and timely payments to its commercial creditors, using these funds instead to subsidize the domestic price of gasoline - which remains fixed in an environment of increasing oil prices," Kalinina said.

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