Paraguay improves credit risk rating

Asunción, IP.- The rating agency Fitch Ratings announces that it has improved the rating of Paraguayan sovereign debt from BB- to BB, and maintains the stable outlook. With this improvement, Paraguay is located two levels below investment grade.

This increase in the rating constitutes an important step in the consolidation of the actions implemented by the economic authorities. The key factors that support this improvement in the rating are the sustained economic growth and resilience of Paraguay’s external accounts, its position as a Net External Creditor and international reserves, according to the report released today by the rating agency.

Likewise, the low levels of debt compared to other countries with a ‘BB’ rating, the monetary policies applied to keep inflation levels low, the country’s demonstrated ability to access international bond markets and multilateral financing on favorable conditions are elements that led to this improvement.

The recent improvement of the Country Rating ratings by the rating agencies, on February 4, 2014, Moody’s Investors Service raised the Paraguayan Government bond rating one notch from Ba3 to Ba2, and changed its outlook from “stable” to “ positive” and on June 11, 2014, Standard & Poor’s improved the rating from BB- to BB, maintaining the stable outlook, which has helped improve investors’ risk perception.