das wird noch richtig spannend dort ! Upgrade puts Russia on investment map From Gateway2Russia Russia was yesterday awarded an investment grade status for the first time, opening the doors for foreign direct investment and fresh capital flows to the country. The upgrade by Moody's rating agency, only five years after the 1998 debt default crisis, comes at a time of increasing interest from foreign companies and portfolio investors in Russia. "Moody's upgrade puts Russia on a map of serious countries to invest in," Al Breach, chief economist at Brunswick UBS Warburg, said. It is also a personal victory for President Vladimir Putin, who has made economic recovery his top priority over the past four years. The upgrade opens Russia to a wider audience of institutional investors who were barred from investing in the country by its low credit rating. It could provide an important boost for foreign direct investment which has been slow in coming compared with other transition economies in central and eastern Europe. "Many multinational companies now are having to have a 'plan' for Russia. More may now implement them," Mr Breach said. The two-notch upgrade to Baa3, the lowest of investment grades, will reduce the cost of borrowing for the Russian government and help Russian companies get cheaper finance in the international capital markets. Moody's said the upgrade reflected a relatively low risk of a debt default and "the strengthening of the government's commitment to prudent fiscal and debt management policies". Russia's debt to gross domestic product ratio is 28 per cent, compared with 140 per cent in Japan. Peter Aven, president of Alfa Bank and a former minister for foreign trade, said: "The move reflects Russia's fundamentals. When I was the foreign trade minister in 1992 Russian foreign currency reserves were $60m [?36m]. Today they are $60bn." Russian international bond yields fell 33 basis points. (By Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow, The Financial Times)
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