Uzbekistan Assigned 'BB-' Long-Term And 'B' Short-Term Ratings; Outlook Stable

OVERVIEW The Uzbekistan government has built a relatively large level of liquid assets, which we expect will support the country's strong external and fiscal positions over our forecast period through 2021. At the same time, Uzbekistan's economic wealth levels, as measured by GDP per capita, remain low. Since coming to power in 2016, President Mirziyoyev has launched a number of economic and institutional reforms to open up the economy and support future growth. Nevertheless, the centralization of decision-making hampers the predictability of future policy responses, in our view. We are assigning 'BB-/B' long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings to Uzbekistan. The outlook is stable. RATING ACTION On Dec. 21, 2018, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'BB-/B' long- and short-term foreign

...OVERVIEW + The Uzbekistan government has built a relatively large level of liquid assets, which we expect will support the country's strong external and fiscal positions over our forecast period through 2021. At the same time, Uzbekistan's economic wealth levels, as measured by GDP per capita, remain low. + Since coming to power in 2016, President Mirziyoyev has launched a number of economic and institutional reforms to open up the economy and support future growth. Nevertheless, the centralization of decision-making hampers the predictability of future policy responses, in our view. + We are assigning '##-/B' long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings to Uzbekistan. + The outlook is stable. RATING ACTION On Dec. 21, 2018, S&P Global Ratings assigned its '##-/B' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to Uzbekistan. The outlook is stable. The transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment is '##-'....

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