The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Ukraine war: Russia's credit rating at junk level - further downgrades may follow

2022-03-03T09:37:26.654Z


Ukraine war: Russia's credit rating at junk level - further downgrades may follow Created: 03/03/2022 10:31 am By: Lisa Mayerhofer Credit agencies Fitch and Moody's have downgraded Russia's credit rating to junk levels. © Arno Burgi/dpa The harsh sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine war also have far-reaching consequences for the German economy and consumers. The news ticker. Oil prices co


Ukraine war: Russia's credit rating at junk level - further downgrades may follow

Created: 03/03/2022 10:31 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Credit agencies Fitch and Moody's have downgraded Russia's credit rating to junk levels.

© Arno Burgi/dpa

The harsh sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine war also have far-reaching consequences for the German economy and consumers.

The news ticker.

  • Oil prices continue to rise in the wake of the Ukraine war, reaching their highest levels in many years.

    (

    Update from March 03, 08:15)

  • Credit agencies Fitch and Moody's have downgraded Russia's credit rating to junk levels.

    Further gradations may follow.

    (

    Update from March 03, 10:15 a.m.)

  • Meanwhile, the German stock market is stabilizing - but the Ukraine war is slowing down the willingness to buy.

    (

    Update from March 03, 10:00 a.m.)

  • This news ticker on the economic consequences of the Ukraine war* is continuously updated.

Update from March 3rd, 10:15 a.m .:

The rating agencies Fitch and Moody's have lowered Russia's credit rating to junk level because of the war in Ukraine*.

The two companies thus placed the country in the category of states that may not be able to repay their debts.

Moody's downgraded Russia's long-term credit rating to B3 from Baa3.

Fitch downgraded the credit rating from BBB to B. Both rating agencies gave the assessment a negative outlook, which means further downgrades could follow.

Fitch and Moody's justified the step with the sanctions of the West because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine*, especially against Russian banks and the country's central bank.

The rating agency S&P downgraded Russia last week in anticipation of possible sanctions.

Update from March 3rd, 10:00 a.m.:

The German stock market stabilized on Thursday.

However, the Ukraine war curbed the willingness to buy.

In the first few minutes of trading, the Dax rose by 0.27 percent to 14,038.51 points.

By midweek it had slipped to its lowest level in a year, but was still in positive territory by the time the market closed.

The MDax of medium-sized German companies gained 0.66 percent on Thursday morning to 31,306.97 points.

The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 went up by 0.47 percent to 3838.70 points.

Update from March 3rd, 9:00 a.m.:

According to Michael Harms, Managing Director of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, German companies are clearly behind the sanctions against Russia.

“Everyone agrees that these sanctions are necessary;

Economic considerations must now take a back seat," said Harms on Thursday in the ZDF "Morgenmagazin".

While there were still discussions when sanctions were imposed because of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 to what extent these sanctions were really necessary, he is now experiencing “a great deal of unity”.

However, Germany is "critically dependent" on Russian gas supplies and should therefore "maintain some trade with Russia, also in its own interest," said Harms.

Ultimately, this is a political decision, but ending this business "would present us with major challenges".

Update from March 3rd, 8:15 a.m .:

Oil prices continue to rise in view of the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, the two major oil grades, Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), marked their highest levels in many years.

A barrel (159 litres) of the North Sea Brent cost up to 118.20 US dollars and thus as much as last time in 2013. A barrel of the US variety WTI was traded at up to 114.99 dollars.

This is the highest level since 2008. Compared to the previous day, prices rose by around four dollars.

Russia's war in Ukraine is raising concerns about oil supply.

Russia is one of the world's largest producers and exporters.

Traders are currently shying away from the offer there, partly for fear of sanctions from large economies such as the USA.

This drives up the prices of other types of oil.

In addition, there is concern about a complete supply failure from Russia, either due to import bans from other countries or an export ban by Russia.

The industrialized countries cannot count on great help from the 23 producing countries in the OPEC+ association, which also includes Russia.

The group is continuing its course of a gradual and moderate expansion of the crude oil supply, as announced by OPEC+ on Wednesday.

The members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) therefore recently decided to release part of their strategic oil reserves.

This also includes Germany.

With material from dpa and AFP

*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-03-03

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.