Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Representatives of Moody's are scheduled to arrive in the capital Dhaka on May 21 to assess the country's sovereign credit rating considering both economic and non-economic factors, officials told BBN on Tuesday.
A two-member team of Moody’s will meet different stakeholders and policy-makers to know the country's latest socio-economic conditions during the two-day visit.
“It's a continuous process,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, said, adding that the sovereign credit rating is reviewed every year to assess and know the country's latest economic situation.
Standard & Poor's (S&P's) earlier assessed the country’s overall socio-economic situation to determine new sovereign credit rating for Bangladesh.
“The S&P will release its report on the country's sovereign credit rating by June,” the central banker said, adding that a two-member team of S&P's had assessed the country's sovereign credit rating from April 30 to May 3 last.
The BB official also said the rating agencies normally consider different issues including economic strength, institutional strength, government financial strength and susceptibility to even risk for preparing the sovereign credit rating.
“The risks of financial, economic and political will be assessed under susceptibility to event risk mechanics,” the central bank official said, adding that the latest balance of payments (BoP) situation along with other issues will be reviewed to asses the government’s financial strength.
Bangladesh’s overall BoP has recorded a $516 million deficit during July-February of the current fiscal year as against $222 million in the corresponding period of last year, according to the central bank statistics.
The overall BoP has entered into a negative territory in FY'11 after a decade mainly due to a widening trade gap, minimum growth in remittances and a deficit balance in the financial account.
Moody's Investors Service, a US-based credit rating agency announced for the second time its sovereign credit rating for Bangladesh as Ba3 on April 18 last year, just after 10 days S&P's sovereign credit rating as BB-.
BBN/SSR/AD-15May12-9:57 pm (BST)
