Major International Agency Suspends Ratings Of Belarus

The reason is that the authorities have classified a lot of data on the economy.

S&P Global Ratings has announced the suspension of Belarus' sovereign ratings. The reason given was the lack of access to information necessary to maintain the ratings. This is reported by Zerkalo with reference to the agency's press service.

"Today S&P Global Ratings has suspended the long-term and short-term foreign currency sovereign ratings of the Republic of Belarus "SD/SD" and the local currency sovereign rating "CCC/C" due to the lack of sufficient and timely information to maintain our ratings. For example, we lack data on the government's budget execution, debt composition and debt repayment schedule," the agency said in its justification for the rating action.

The agency says it is prepared to resume the rating process once the missing data is available and S&P concludes that it meets its standards for quantity, timeliness and reliability. "If, after a reasonable period of time, our monitoring information requirements are still not met, we will withdraw the ratings," the agency said. S&P Global Ratings is one of the three major international credit rating agencies. They issue credit ratings for countries and issuers of securities. In the summer of 2022, after Minsk began defaulting on its ruble Eurobond obligations, S&P, along with two other agencies, downgraded Belarus' credit rating and declared a default on the Eurobond.