Standard & Poor’s rating agency’s research says that Russia is not as vulnerable as its neighbors to the international liquidity crisis. However, it is unlikely that the rating would grow sooner than financial markets stabilize, and than the activities of rating agencies themselves are reconsidered.

 Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rating agency published on Monday its report analyzing the stability of financial systems in the developing countries of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). S&P surveyed 15 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland, and Egypt. Russia fell among the countries least vulnerable to the liquidity crisis at the international markets.

The most risky situation is in Latvia’s over-heated economy. Bulgaria, Turkey, and Romania’s situation is just a little better. All these countries show high speed of GDP growth, financing investments by foreign loans. They also compensate the exterior trade’s negative balance by means of high influx of capital.

According to S&P, Russia’s rating is BBB+/Stable now. Russia received it exactly a year ago, on September 4, 2006. Considering the on-going discussions in the EU and the U.S. about the necessity to change the control over and the work of rating agencies, Russia’s rating will change only after liquidity returns to the international markets and the rating agencies undergo changes.

Kommersant