Fitch Ratings upgrades Kazakhstan's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating

November 20, Fitch Ratings upgraded Kazakhstan's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'BBB+' from 'BBB' and Long-term local currency IDR to 'A-' from 'BBB+'. The Outlooks are Stable. According to the rating agency, the upgrade is assigned to further strengthening of the trade balance, relatively low public debt, strong growth prospects, and steps taken to revitalize the country’s banking system. In aggregate, IDRs provide an ordinal ranking of issuers based on the agency’s view of their relative vulnerability to default, rather than a prediction of a specific percentage likelihood of default. ‘BBB’ ratings indicate that expectations of default risk are currently low. The capacity for payment of financial commitments is considered adequate but adverse business or economic conditions are more likely to impair this capacity. Late October Tengrinews.kz reported that Kazakhstan had gained 7 notches in the Doing Business-2013 compiled by the World Bank, moving from the 56th to the 49th position. Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 185 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year’s report data cover regulations measured from June 2011 through May 2012. According to the report, Poland was the global top improver in the past year. Besides Poland, nine other economies are recognized as having the most improved ease of doing business across several areas of regulation as measured by the report: Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Burundi, Costa Rica, Mongolia, Greece, Serbia, and Kazakhstan.