Fitch confirms Russia's long-term ratings at BBB level

 　　MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Fitch international rating agency confirmed long-term ratings of Russia in national and foreign currency at the BBB level, the agency said Friday.

　　Fitch's forecast remained positive due to a strong government's bookkeeping balance, flexible currency exchange rate and lower inflation, Fitch's chief analyst¹ Ed Parker said.

　　Still, Russia's deficiencies have been infrastructure² shortcomings, an unfavorable business climate, high levels of corruption³, and belated fiscal⁴ measures that make the country dependent on oil price volatility⁵, said the report obtained by the Interfax news agency.

　　Fitch assessed the Russian economy's 3.7-percent growth in the second quarter of 2011 as "balanced, though not strong."

　　It forecast Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) to reach 4.2 percent by the end of 2011 thanks to higher-than-expected oil prices, a good harvest and a rise in domestic consumption.

　　The federal budget's deficit⁶ by the end of 2011 would fall to 1.2 percent of GDP compared with 4 percent in 2010, Fitch said.

　　Fitch also said it did not expect Russian political strategy and economic policy would dramatically change after the parliamentary and presidential elections due in the next six months.

　　Fitch's report came two days after Standard & Poor's confirmed Russia's sovereign credit ratings.

　　According to S&P, Russia's long-term foreign currency sovereign rating remains⁷ at BBB level, and the short-term rating at A-3 level.

1 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

2 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

3 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

4 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

5 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。