New BRICS rating agency under discussion as Russia takes over presidency

Vadim Lukov, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large

BRICS rating agency: Technocrats from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are discussing the possibility of setting up the BRICS’s own rating agency, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Vadim Lukov  told TASS on Friday, days after Russia took over the organisation’s rotating presidency. “After recent well-publicised instances when the big three rating agencies have  issued politicised and intentionally biased ratings on… the prospects for  the Russian economy, this issue has becomes especially important,” he said, adding that France, Argentina and Italy had had similar experiences in the past.
The new rating agency would have to be strictly impartial, he warned, however. “It is important to ensure that the creation of such an agency is not perceived as a political counterbalance to existing  agencies  because if that was the case, its ratings would be perceived by its critics as politicised and not worthy of attention.”