OREANDA-NEWS. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today it raised its long-term issuer credit rating on the Kazakh Agrarian Credit Corp. (KACC) to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'. At the same time, the short-term issuer credit rating was raised to 'A-3' from 'B' and the 'kzAA' Kazakhstan national scale rating was affirmed. The outlook is stable.

This upgrade follows the recent rating action on the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"The ratings are supported by the strong government support that KACC, which is 100% state-owned, receives in the form of capital injections due to its public policy-based mandate of providing credit to rural mutual credit associations throughout Kazakhstan," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Boris Kopeykin.

The ratings are constrained, however, due to KACC's customers--rural mutual credit associations--operating in the risky agricultural sector.