(Source: http://fxstock.ru)

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation will continue to work with the rating agencies.

The Russian Finance Ministry does not consider the possibility of termination of contractual relations with international rating agencies. This was reported by “Interfax” on Tuesday, February 26, quoting the statement of the Press Secretary of the Minister of Finance Svetlana Nikitina. “We will continue to maintain an open dialogue. Just like before, we will provide all agencies with relevant macroeconomic information on a regular basis. We will continue to explain all aspects of budgetary and financial policies in order to improve the rating in the medium term” - she said.

Earlier the Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak proposed to terminate the contracts between Russia and international rating agencies. According to the Deputy Finance Minister, the ratings of the country could be made this way too, within the framework of common procedures. Storchak added that Moscow “even paid for these contracts”. As he noted, in the current situation, it was “useless to meet them (representatives of agencies – note by “Lenta.Ru”), explain and show something”.

The cost of contracts with sovereign borrowers on maintenance of ratings is usually measured in tens of thousands of dollars per year. Previously Moody’s lowered the credit rating of Russia from Baa3 to the speculative Ba1 level. The forecast is “negative”. The main reasons are called the capital outflow from the country, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the drop in oil prices and the drop in the exchange rate of the rouble. The agency has also lowered the ratings of seven financial institutions in Russia.

“I consider Moody’s assessment to be not only too negative, but also based on a very pessimistic forecast having no analogues today”- Siluanov estimated the decision of the international rating agency.

On January 26 Standard & Poor’s has lowered the sovereign credit rating of Russia from BBB- to BB + for the first time in the last decade, which is below the investment level. Then the Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that there was no reason to dramatize the situation. According to him, this decision reflects the pessimism of the agency and does not account for “a number of factors characterizing the strengths of the Russian economy”. On January 9 Fitch lowered the credit rating of Russia by one step – down to BBB-. Thus, the position of the Russian Federation has been lowered to “thrash level” by all three agencies of the “Big Three” one by one.