FT: Kiev debt costs rise over Moscow worries
The cost of insuring Ukraine’s debt against restructuring or default rose to its highest since the 2004 Orange Revolution on Tuesday, as investors fretted that the Kremlin’s spat with the west could spill over into a vast country of 46m people that straddles the divide between a resurgent Russia and the European Union. →
Fitch sees worse threats to Ukraine than Russia row
By Peter Apps
LONDON, August 15 (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency Fitch does not yet see rising tension with Russia as a major threat to Ukraine’s creditworthiness, it said on Friday, but remains concerned about a series of stresses in the Ukrainian economy.
The aftermath of conflict between Georgia and Russia has seen a deepening row between Ukraine and its larger neighbour over the use of a Ukrainian port by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, prompting investors to price its debt as riskier.
“It’s not one of our key worries for the rating at this stage,” Fitch director of emerging Europe sovereigns Andrew Colquhoun. “We are more worried about the current account deficit, rising external debt levels and inflation.”