Fixed Income
Ukrainian sovereign Eurobonds continued to rise in value last week after rating agency Moody’s upgraded the country’s credit rating by one notch to Caa2 and assigned a positive outlook for the rating. Moody’s said it expects modest annual GDP growth in Ukraine for 2017-2018. An encouraging message also came from the Finance Ministry, which reported a USD 1.0bn budget surplus for January-June 2017, compared to a USD 1.9bn deficit in the same period of 2016. The balance of funds on the Ukrainian State Treasury Service’s single account as of Sept 1 was estimated at UAH 61.2bn (USD 2.35bn), representing the highest dollar-denominated level since all the way back in 2007. An IMF mission will arrive in Kyiv in mid-September to evaluate the country’s loan program.
