BEIJING, February 2. /TASS/. China’s leading rating agency Dagong is not planning to downgrade Russia’s sovereign credit rating and will keep the "stable" outlook for Gazprom’s long-term credit rating over the next 1-2 years, the agency’s president, Guan Jianzhong, told reporters on Monday.
"We are watching the balance between the budget revenues and debt obligations [of Russia’s economy]. There have been no special changes and we will not yet revise the rating," Jianzhong said.
In January, the agency assigned a ‘A’ rating to Russia with a stable outlook.
Earlier on Monday, China’s Dagong Global rating agency for the first time assigned to Russian energy giant Gazprom a "AAA" long-term credit rating, the highest-possible rating, for both local and foreign currencies, with a stable outlook.
Jianzhong said that the sanctions introduced by the United States and the EU countries against Russia, and also a short-term deterioration of the Russian economic situation won’t significantly affect Gazprom’s financial solvency.
Russia’s "shift to the East" strategy will open broad prospects for the company for the development in the Asia-Pacific region, Jianzhong said. "This will allow Gazprom to stabilize and improve its mid-term and long-term profitability," he added.
China’s Dagong Global rating agency, one of the leading in the country, was established in 1994 after being approved by the country’s Central Bank and the state committee for economic development.
Dagong’s ratings are recognized by the Chinese government. Dagong became the first agency to have started studying disadvantages in the methods of the US rating agencies in an effort to assess the global economic process more objectively.
China’s Dagong became the first agency to have downgraded the US sovereign credit rating. The agency describes itself as a force that contributes towards the establishment of a new international system of credit ratings.