VOL. XL

No. 49

8-December-1997

FSU

Moody's Issues A First Time Rating On Turkmenistan

Citing the economy's dependence on only two sectors, natural gas and agriculture, aswell as previous problems servicing debt, Moody's has issued a B2 rating on the foreigncurrency bonds of Turkmenistan, a limit of B3 on foreign currency-denominated long-termbank deposits and Not Prime on the obligations of institutions domiciled there. Despitethe fact that Turkmenistan has enormous gas reserves, structural...