ISTANBUL
The crisis in Ukraine will become a burden on Russia’s economy but Russia’s sovereign credit profile is still strong, global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings announced on Thursday.
Weakened by currency depreciation and capital flight, the risks for the Russian economy increased after the crisis in Ukraine according to Fitch.
Following the incursion into Crimea, Russia's stock markets tumbled while the rouble heavily depreciated, though both saw improvements on Tuesday.
Fitch underlined that the situation in Russia is unpredictable but it has a strong credit profile, which means its "BBB" sovereign rating is not affected.
Russia's rouble lost 2.2 percent value against the US dollar and Russia's bonds lost 10.8 percent value on Monday. "Higher energy prices and a weaker rouble should provide a fillip to sovereign finances," Fitch said. Russia is the world's biggest energy exporter and its economy is highly dependent on energy exports.
“We recently revised our growth forecasts for 2014 and 2015 to 1.5% and 2%, respectively,” Fitch said.
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