Belarus Debt Rating Cut at S&P on ‘External Vulnerability’

Belarus’s debt rating was cut by Standard & Poor’s by one notch to B, five steps below investment grade, from B+ as dwindling reserve holdings increased its “external vulnerability.” The outlook is negative, S&P said.

“The rating actions reflect the country’s heightened vulnerability to negative external financing trends because of the deterioration in usable reserves,” S&P analysts led by Ana Mates in London said in a statement today. Belarus faces “uncertainties” with its “external funding gap in 2011 and the corresponding pressures on the exchange rate.”