Mali: Serbia a Step Away from Getting Investment Rating

Standard and Poor’s, one of the three biggest credit rating agencies, has recently revised up Serbia’s outlook for the further increase of the credit rating, whereby the country has ended up a step away from getting the so-called investment rating, the minister of finance, Sinisa Mali, told Tanjug and expressed his conviction that Serbia will be able to get it by the end of 2022 or mid-2023 at the latest.

He points out that that would be the first time in the country’s history that it has an investment rating and that he is sure that it would have already happened had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Explaining why it’s important to have this rating, he points out that the credit rating is in fact the rating of the overall financial state of a country, its perspectives and its economic policies.

– It’s as if getting one’s whole body scanned at the doctor’s to check the state of every organ and see how healthy one is. On the other hand, when it comes to the rating, our aim is to be part of a small group of countries in the world that have reached the investment rating – Mali says.

According to him, having this rating indicates that the country is stable and that its economy is healthy, that is has a good development perspective, which also leads to a positive attitude of investors toward that country, because they want to invest precisely in such stable countries.

– What’s especially important for our economy and citizens is that each improvement of the investment rating automatically leads to the reduction of interest rates. You become more favorable, the investment risk is lower, the risk premium is lower when you invest money, and, with that, the interest rates for the economy and the citizens are lower too – Sinisa Mali emphasizes for Tanjug.

He adds that it gives an additional benefit to companies when they procure equipment, decide to invest in new facilities, and, for citizens, the interest rates on borrowing or lease-purchase are lower.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Standard and Poors

Siniša Mali

credit rating

investment rating

interest rates