S&P Cuts Russian Credit Outlook

Russia's economy took another hit Thursday, as Standard & Poor's announced it was cutting Russia's credit-rating outlook to negative from stable, thanks to Western sanctions. Russia's credit rating is BBB, the second-lowest investment grade. The ratings agency also lowered its growth forecast for Russia for the year to 1.2 percent from an earlier estimate of 2.2 percent. In the first three months of 2014 alone, $60 billion has fled the country. “Heightened geopolitical risk and the prospect of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions following Russia’s incorporation of Crimea could reduce the flow of potential investment, trigger rising capital outflows, and further weaken Russia’s already deteriorating economic performance,” S&P analysts wrote.