OREANDA-NEWS. January 20, 2012. In an information released on Friday the Standard & Poor’s rating agency confirmed the Estonian country rating at the present high level of AA-, the Finance Ministry said.

Due to the debt crisis risks the outlook of the rating is negative, the agency said.

The agency said the reasons of the high rating were Estonia's politically stable environment, effective control of public sector expenditures and a low debt burden as well as a flexible private sectors, all of which help manage with negative influences of the external environment. The possibility of weakening of the European and eurozone economies are seen as the main risks of the country rating.

Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi agreed with Standard and Poor's assessment concerning Estonia's achievements as well as the main risks for the economy.

But Ligi said that it was questionable whether the rating agency's more general messages were unambiguously understood and justified.

"It is difficult to see how fiscal consolidation could threaten Europe's economic growth compared with the mistrust caused by slack budget policy," Ligi said. "Trust, stable economic environment and well-organized state finances will remain the most important preconditions for the restoration of sustainable growth."

"Naturally  people deal with issues of competiveness and structural reforms in Europe, but this does not mitigate the need for the organization of state finances," the minister added. "Already now the eurozone seems to be considerably stronger than the economies of some other big economies and reforms both on the member countries as well as on the European level are moving in the right direction."

Standard & Poor raised the Estonian country rating to the level AA- on August 9, 2011.