16:11 - 29.01.2020

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January 29, Fineko/abc.az. Expert economist Rovshan Agayev expressed his attitude towards the renewal of the rating of Azerbaijan as a country and SOCAR as a leading state company of Azerbaijan by international credit agency Fitch.

ABC.AZ reports that according to the expert, the ratings of international agencies are assigned both directly to the state itself and to its individual subject.

Agayev says that in particular, this rating is very important for companies that want to take external debt independently from the central government, individual local governments or financial institutions.

Agayev believes that credit ratings assess the ability of an entity to meet its obligations, possible financial and economic risks: "In particular, entities wishing to borrow debt from international financial markets are required to have such ratings. And this time the country's rating corresponds not to the investment level, but to the speculative level and is confirmed at the BB+ level. This level is classified as "risky liabilities with speculative characteristics" in the Agency's 4-step classification (A, B, C, D). The report notes that the country has strong favorable external balance and low public debt, but high dependence on natural resources, weak management system, and weak stability of the banking sector."