NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) April 23, 2001--Eight of the 14 post-Communist countries rated by Standard&Poor's have achieved investment-grade foreign currency sovereign credit ratings and more are sure to follow, says a recently published criteria article entitled, "Rating the Transition Economies—2001." The article, available at www.standardandpoors.com under Resource Center-Criteria-Sovereigns and on RatingsDirect, Standard&Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, will also be featured in the May 9, 2000, edition of Standard&Poor's CreditWeek. Standard&Poor's finds that the creditworthiness of the 14 rated transition economies— Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, the Slovak Republic, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Russian Federation—has improved overall since its last survey, in May 2000.
