(Washington) The rating agency Moody’s lowered Ukraine’s rating to Caa3 on Friday after a review began in late February the day after the Russian invasion, and signaled that it could downgrade it again, the outlook being negative.
Posted yesterday at 5:21 p.m.
This downgrade “is motivated by the increased risks to the sustainability of Ukrainian public debt due to the invasion by Russia, resulting in a military conflict that has prolonged more than initially anticipated”, details Moody’s in a press release.
This “increases the likelihood of debt restructuring and losses imposed on private sector creditors”, adds the agency, which notes that the significant international financial support certainly helps “to mitigate immediate liquidity risks”. , but that “the resulting significant increase in public debt is likely to prove unsustainable in the medium term”.
Thus, these concerns “could further hinder access to public financing” of Ukrainian debt, details Moody’s.
As for the negative outlook, it reflects the “high degree of uncertainty regarding the evolution of the invasion and its implications for credit”.
Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine on February 24.
The agencies Fitch and S&P had, the next day, degraded their ratings for Ukraine, while Moody’s had begun a review of the situation in the country, with a view to a potential lowering.