Moody's Investors Service has retained Croatia's Baa3 local- and foreign-currency government bond ratings, but changed to negative from stable the rating outlook for the country.
This international credit rating provider said on Friday that its decision to change the outlook to negative was driven by "the heightened uncertainties about Croatia's short- and medium-term economic growth prospects arising from an impaired economic model and an export sector that is constrained by the significant uncertainty about the depth and duration of the ongoing euro area recession" as well as by "the high implementation risks to the government's fiscal deficit reduction plan, which is aimed at returning the government's finances to a sustainable path."
"Concurrently, Moody's has today also revised to negative from stable the outlook on the A1 country ceiling for foreign-currency bonds as well as on the Ba1 country ceiling for foreign-currency deposits,"
"The country ceilings for local-currency debt and deposits remain at Aa1 and A1, respectively," the agency reported.
