Fitch affirms ratings of Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Stavropol Region

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Issuer Default Ratings of Russia's Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Stavropol Region and three more regions.

The agency has affirmed Moscow's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'BBB' with Stable Outlooks. 

The affirmation reflects Fitch's expectations that the city's intrinsically strong resilience to downside shocks will aid it in sustaining satisfactory debt sustainability ratios, to commensurate with its ratings, while its ratings remain capped by the Russian sovereign IDRs (BBB/Stable), the agency said.

Specifically, despite a projected drop in Russia's GDP growth, underpinned primarily by the coronavirus pandemic and accompanied by oil and other primary commodities price drop and rouble depreciation, under our updated rating case scenario the city's debt sustainability metrics will be only moderately affected.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Russian City of St. Petersburg's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'BBB' with Stable Outlooks.

The Stavropol Region's Outlook was revised to Negative from Stable, while the region's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) was affirmed at 'BB+'.

The revision of Outlook reflects Fitch's expectation that the economic impact, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, will put pressure on the region's debt sustainability metrics, potentially leading to a reassessment of the region's standalone credit profile (SCP).

Fitch also affirmed the ratings of the Mari El Republic, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District's (YNAD) and the Krasnoyarsk Region.