Finance Ministry: Rising of Azerbaijan’s rating increase country's creditworthiness

Rising of Azerbaijan’s credit rating by the international rating agency Moody's Investors Service is not the only indicator of increasing confidence in the country from the international financial community, but also improve the creditworthiness of the country, the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry reported.

“Rising of the country's credit rating will also have a positive impact on the simplification of the conditions of access to international capital markets by creating the necessary conditions for the issuance of securities to the government and major Azerbaijani companies to obtain loans on the international financial markets," the ministry said.

Moody's Investors Service first assigned ratings to Azerbaijan in 2006. To date, Azerbaijan has been assigned a rating of BBB-from international rating agency Fitch Ratings and BB + by agency Standard & Poors.

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday revised its outlook on the rating of Azerbaijan "Ba 1" from "stable" to "positive", citing improvements in the country's finances due to rising oil prices and the prudential management of revenues.

Change in outlook reflects the rapid accumulation of financial assets by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, whose assets grew by $8 billion up to $ 23 billion from late 2009 to late 2010.

Foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank also increased by $1.6 billion up to $7 billion. The government’s ongoing efforts to invest in non-oil sector have also helped improve the outlook.


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