Fitch revises Outlook on Armenia to negative; Affirms at "BB-"April 4, 2020 - 16:49 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Armenia's Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDRs at "BB-", Fitch said on Friday, April 3. "The coronavirus shock negatively affects the Armenian economy due to its exposures to commodities (a majority of exports), the Russian economy (for remittances, trade and FDI) and to tourism, only partially offset by the benefit of a lower oil price," the agency said. Also, Fitch predicts that the Covid-19 shock will drag down GDP growth from 7.6% in 2019 to 0.5% in 2020 (a 4.4 percentage points downward revision since the last review six months ago). The government has announced a state of emergency, with a support package totaling 2.3% of GDP, and the central bank has cut interest rates by 25bp to 5.25% following a fall in inflation to an average -0.1% in the first two months of 2020. Fitch projects, however, that GDP growth partially recovers in 2021, to 5.5%, supported by a rebound in external demand, investment catch-up, and revival of private consumption and employment growth, with a moderate drag from fiscal tightening. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |