Ministry of Economy and Finance Holds Annual Consultation with Fitch on Sovereign Credit Rating

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on the 22nd that it will conduct its annual consultation with international credit rating agency Fitch on sovereign credit rating assessment from the 24th to 26th of this month for three days.

Fitch officials, including Andrew Colquhoun, Head of Asia-Pacific Sovereign Ratings at Fitch, will visit major institutions during this period, including the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Unification, Financial Services Commission, Bank of Korea, Financial Supervisory Service, KDI, and Korea Institute of Public Finance.

Fitch will review ▲macroeconomic issues such as measures to stimulate domestic demand and medium to long-term growth strategies ▲the impact of external risk factors such as U.S. quantitative easing reduction and concerns over China's economic slowdown on the Korean economy ▲fiscal issues including public institution debt management and medium to long-term fiscal soundness.

Additionally, Fitch will gather opinions on ▲financial issues such as household debt and financial system stability ▲unification and security issues including unification policy and geopolitical risks.

Following Fitch, S&P; officials will visit Korea on August 28 (tentative) and Moody's officials on September 3 (tentative) for annual consultations in sequence.

Currently, Fitch maintains South Korea's sovereign credit rating at AA- (Stable), which was decided in August last year, Moody's maintains Aa3 (Stable), and S&P; maintains A+ (Stable) respectively.