LONDON (Standard&Poor's) May 14, 2009—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said it had affirmed its 'BB+/B' foreign currency and 'BBB-/A-3' local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Romania. The outlook remains negative. "In our view, the Romanian economy continues to face large macro-financial risks due to the sharp fall in external demand and the narrowing of the external commercial credit channel, which has taken its toll on domestic demand," Standard&Poor's credit analyst Marko Mrsnik said. As a consequence, the economy has entered a severe recession and the current account deficit, which reached 12.5% of GDP in 2008, is adjusting sharply and may in our view narrow to below 6% of GDP in 2009. As
