WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Rating agency Fitch has no plans of changing Russia's sovereign credit rating, the country's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has announced, pointing to positive developments in the Russian economy.
"I met with Fitch personally, they are not changing the rating yet; they said that they had postponed the discussion of the situation in Russia by the committee – they plan to study the economic and financial situation more deeply. In any case, no decisions on rating change have been made," Siluanov said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Standard & Poor's affirmed Russia's sovereign credit ratings with a negative outlook.
Over the past few months, Russia saw several downgrades of its foreign debt ratings. Currently, two of the three major rating agencies — S&P and Moody's, place Russia's long-term foreign currency credit rating below the investment grade, at BB+ and Ba1, respectively. Fitch has put Russia's sovereign rating at BBB-, which is just one mark above the speculative grade, or "junk" bond, category.
Many experts have argued that the three major rating agencies have made biased judgments with regard to Russia based on the geopolitical situation, as they have cited the situation in Ukraine as one of the main reasons behind their downgrades.
Russia's Finance Ministry has stressed that the downgrades are politically motivated and do not reflect the true state of the Russian economy.
