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Rating Action Commentary

ֳ Rates Romania's EUR1bn Eurobond 'BB+'

Fri 12 Mar, 2010 - 8:24 AM ET

ֳ-London-12 March 2010: ֳ has today assigned the Republic of Romania's 5-year EUR1bn sovereign bond a rating of 'BB+'. The rating is in line with Romania's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'BB+', which has a Stable Outlook.

ֳ revised the Outlook on Romania's Long-term IDRs to Stable from Negative on 2 February 2010 on the passing of the 2010 budget and the normalisation of Romania's IMF/EU funding programme, which eased downward pressures on Romania's sovereign ratings.

The IMF-agreed 2010 budget deficit target is 5.9%, compared with an estimated general government deficit of 7.8% in 2009. ֳ notes that there are risks related to the implementation of politically challenging policies contained in the 2010 budget, including the public wage freeze and redundancies, while fiscal consolidation will need to continue beyond 2010 to sustain the economy's external adjustment and lessen the upward trend in public debt ratios. ֳ forecasts Romania's general government debt (including guarantees) at 33% of GDP at end-2010, compared with 21.8% at end-2008.

Applicable criteria, 'Sovereign Rating Methodology', dated 16 October, 2009, are available on .

Contact: David Heslam, London, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7417 4384; Ed Parker: +44 (0) 20 7417 6340.

Media Relations: Peter Fitzpatrick, London, Tel: + 44 (0)20 7417 4364, Email: peter.fitzpatrick@fitchratings.com; Hannah Warrington, London, Tel: +44 (0) 207 417 6298, Email: hannah.warrington@fitchratings.com.

Additional information is available at .

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