Page 101 - RusRPTFeb21

no outlook indicated.
Fitch has been a lot more upbeat on Russia and has consistently ranked if with a treble B rating since 2004 of one sort or another, as it take more account of Russia rock solid fundamentals – the low external debt and large currency reserves. The lowest rating it had was CCC in August 2008 following the currency meltdown. The highest rating was Baa1 in March 2013 thanks to the economic rebound that year.
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rates both Russia’s foreign debt at BBB-​ with stable outlook and the local debt at BBB.
S&P has also been fairly consistent on Russia’s rating. Its lowest grade was BB+ (negative) awarded in January 2015. The highest was BBB awarded in December 2008.
8.5 ​Fixed income
Russia’s Ministry of Finance fulfilled the quarterly plan for the placement of OFZs by only 6% at its third weekly auction in January ​offering investors 10-year floating coupon bonds worth RUB119.609bn at par. The demand amounted to about 33.848bn, or 28.3% of the volume of available balances. As a result, having satisfied 13 applications during the auction, the Ministry of Finance placed bonds for RUB9,942.3mn. at par. “Such a low volume of OFZ placement has not been observed for 11 months,” analysts of the Region brokerage company note. As a result, the total volume of loans issued by the department in January amounted to 61.1bn or only 6.1% of the placement planned for the first quarter of RUB1 trillion. Analysts say that if the MinFin is going to make its targets it will have to increase rates. According to the original borrowing schedule, the Ministry of Finance had to place OFZs in the amount of RUB90.909bn on a weekly basis. Taking into account the disastrous results of January, this amount increased to RUB117.36bn per week.
101 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ February 2021 www.intellinews.com