In Brief
Moody’s cuts outlook on Bulgarian debt LONDON/SOFIA (Reuters) – Ratings agency Moody’s cut the outlook on Bulgaria’s debt and currency ratings to «stable» from «positive» yesterday, citing rising current account imbalances and the prospect of slower growth. «The prospect of an upgrade in the next 18 months has diminished because of deteriorating external imbalances – from already high levels – combined with the growing prospect of a sharp slowdown in economic growth next year in the context of the spreading global credit crunch,» it said in a statement. European Union accession has generated an economic boom in the past few years due to strong growth in domestic consumption, credit lending and foreign investment as former communist Bulgaria catches up with Western Europe. But as global funding costs rise and the European economy cools, international banks are expected to reduce credit expansion in Bulgaria, hurting growth, Moody’s said. EYDAP to up charges by 3 pct next month The Athens Water and Sewage Company (EYDAP) will up water rates by 3 percent as of next month, the company said yesterday. The hike is below the country’s annual inflation rate, which has been moving at a pace of slightly below 5 percent in recent months. The state-controlled company said in a filing to the Athens bourse that its last price hike was also 3 percent back in February last year. Shares in EYDAP yesterday rose 1.06 percent to 9.50 euros. Rates unchanged Romania’s central bank left its main interest rate unchanged for the first time in a year as a bumper harvest slows inflation and policymakers study the local impact of global economic turmoil. The Banca Nationala a Romaniei left its monetary policy rate at 10.25 percent, the highest in the European Union, the bank said in an e-mail report yesterday. That is in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 12 economists. «This means the central bank believes inflation could fall substantially during the coming quarters,» said Nicolaie Alexandru-Chidesciuc, a senior economist at ING Bank Romania, by e-mail yesterday. «In the first quarter of next year, we should expect cuts in the key rate.» Romania’s central bank has raised its main rate at every policy meeting in the past year, lifting it from 7 percent last October. The inflation rate rose from a 17-year low of 3.7 percent in March 2007, to 9 percent in July. It fell to 8 percent in August. Central bank Governor Mugur Isarescu sees the year-end inflation rate at 6.6 percent at the highest. (Bloomberg) Romanian plant Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer products company, said it plans to invest more than $100 million to build a second plant in Romania. The Cincinnati-based company expects to open a personal-hygiene products facility in the southern Romanian town of Urlati in the first half of 2010, P&G said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. (Bloomberg) Turkish power Alarko Holding AS, a Turkish builder and power generator, won an auction to operate the electricity grid in the Konya region of central Turkey with a bid of $440 million. Alarko beat off competition from four other companies including retailer Kiler Holding, the government’s asset-sales agency in Ankara said yesterday. (Bloomberg)
