(MENAFN- AFP) Standard and Poor's upgraded Ukraine's credit rating on Monday from "selective default" thanks to the cash-strapped former Soviet country's ability to strike a major debt write-down deal.
The New York-based agency said it was raising Ukraine's foreign currency sovereign rating from 'SD' to 'B-/B' -- a grade defined as "highly speculative" but one that leaves the door open to future borrowing from abroad.
S&P downgraded Ukraine to selective default on September 25.
The war-riven country was then still going through excruciating negotiations with its commercial creditors aimed at easing its outsized debt burden and keeping an IMF-led life support package on track.
"The rating action follows the completion of Ukraine's distressed debt exchange on Oct. 14," S&P said in a statement.
"Te raising of the ratings to 'B-' reflects the government's gradual implementation of reforms that support fiscal, financial, and economic stability, alongside improvement in some of Ukraine's external indicators, including its increasing international reserves."
Foreign cash injections have boosted Ukraine's gold and hard currencies' value to slightly more than $13 billion (11.5 billion euros) -- nearly double the low they had reached at the end of last year.
Yet the upgrade is not all good news for President Petro Poroshenko's austerity-driven government.
The rating is still classified as "junk" and puts the east European nation of about 40 million out of reach of most sovereign Western investment funds.
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