Moody's Confirms Russia's Investment Rating

The recent terrorist attacks in Russia won't have an impact on the country's sovereign rating, said Jonathan Schiffer, the vice president of Moody's Investors Service, quoted by Interfax. So far Moody's is the only major international ratings agency, which has given Russia an investment level rating of Baa3. The rating was upgraded from Ba2 in October 2003.

"Of course, there may be temporary consequences [from the terrorist attacks], in the tourism industry, for example. But we do not believe that they will be long-term consequences considerable enough to affect the rating," said Schiffer. He also reminded the agency's reporter that Russia's rating has a stable forecast and said: "We have no plans to change this forecast and therefore terrorist attacks in Russia don't influence its sovereign rating."

Jonathan Schiffer explained that the most important factors that determine the level of the country's sovereign ratings are the state of the country's budget, the quality of debt policies and the parameters of inflation and domestic currency stability. Moody's analyst reiterated that the Yukos affair has no bearing on Russia's investment rating.