Moody's Ratings

BELGRADE - After Standard & Poor's and Fitch, the world's third most renowned rating agency, Moody's, has improved Serbia's outlook from stable to positive, affirming the ratings at Ba2, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) says.

The Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) has already drawn from markets €8.7 billion out of the planned €10 billion through bond issues. Thus, another issue is still a possibility, although several experts caution this is not necessary, and that the outstanding amount can be easily covered via the three planned reissuances.

A new round of ratings assessments for Greece's debt will begin in September. DBRS will start on September 6, followed, a week later, by Moody's, the only one of the credit rating agencies that has not bestowed an "investment grade" rating on Greece.

Announcing increased profitability for the first half of the year Friday, Alpha Bank also reported the first dividend to shareholders since 2007, as well as plans to increase the size of the dividend as a percentage of profits in subsequent years. 

Moody's warned on Tuesday that worsening demographics and the increase in the dependency ration of the elderly constitute a serious fiscal challenge as well as a cause of downgrades of states' ratings. Greece, as it states, is expected within the next decade to have the fifth highest dependency ratio among all developed economies internationally.

Moody's has projected that Bulgaria will join the Eurozone by the beginning of 2026. However, any signs of weakening institutional frameworks or further delays in adopting the euro could lead to a downgrade in Bulgaria's credit rating, according to the rating agency's recent announcement.

Moody's upgraded National Bank and Piraeus Bank deposit ratings on Monday.

In National Bank's case, Moody's upgraded its long- and short-term deposit ratings to Baa2/P-2 from Baa3/P-3, and changed its outlook on the long-term deposit ratings changes to stable from positive.

The return of Greek banks to distributing dividends to their shareholders is an important milestone for the sector as it confirms the full return to normality, rating agencies comment to Kathimerini.

This development is expected to strengthen the investment mood for their shares, they point out, something that is already becoming apparent on the board of the Athens Stock Exchange.

Moody's Ratings upgraded the outlook on the government of Cyprus on Friday to positive from stable, while also affirming the country's long-term credit rating at Baa2.

WASHINGTON - At a Washington investor meeting, Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali spoke with representatives of the top US and international companies and investment funds.

Mali, who is in Washington for the IMF/World Bank Group Spring Meetings, gave a presentation of Serbia's economic performance and opportunities for investing in the country.