Fitch Ratings – Warsaw – 30 Apr 2020: Fitch Ratings has revised the Ukrainian City of Lviv’s Outlook to Stable from Positive while affirming the city’s Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘B’. A full list of rating actions is detailed below.

The revision of Outlook follows that of Ukraine (see ‘Fitch Revises Ukraine’s Outlook to Stable; Affirms at ‘B’ dated 22 April on www.fitchratings.com) as Lviv’s ratings remain constrained by that of the sovereign.

Lviv is a capital city in Lviv Region located in the west of Ukraine. The population of the city is about 700,000 or 30% of the region’s population. The city’s economy is diversified across manufacturing and services. Financial planning, debt projections and investment planning are based on a three-year cycle while budget is subject to regular amendments amid instability in Ukraine’s political system and ongoing changes to the national budgetary system.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive rating action/upgrade:

• Lviv’s IDRs are currently constrained by the sovereign ratings. Therefore, positive rating action on
  the sovereign could lead to a corresponding action on the city’s IDRs.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative rating action/downgrade:

• Negative rating action on the sovereign would lead to a corresponding action on the city’s ratings;
• A multiple-notch downward revision of the SCP below ‘b’, driven by material deterioration in debt
  metrics, particularly a debt payback sustainably above 5x under Fitch’s rating case.

For the full report follow the link with key rating drivers here