OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says in a new report that international public finance (IPF) issuer downgrades outpaced upgrades in 2015 by a margin of 2.4 to 1, in line with 2014's 2.2 to 1. However, the number of issuers affected by downgrades and upgrades declined more than 40% year on year.

Overall, the share of issuers affected by downgrades fell to 9.2% in 2015, compared with 15.6% in 2014. The share of ratings upgraded (3.8%) was below the 7.2% recorded a year earlier. Positive rating activity was limited in 2015 with a total of nine upgrades.

Ukraine's capital - Kyiv - defaulted on its USD250m Eurobond in November, marking the first Fitch-rated international public finance foreign-currency IDR default for eight years. The resulting Fitch annual IPF default rate was 0.42%.

This new study provides transition and default analysis on Fitch's international public finance ratings in 2015 and over the period 1995-2015. The report also provides summary statistics on the year's key IPF rating trends.