Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on January 30, 2014, lowered its long-term issuer credit rating on Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea to 'CCC+' from 'B-', S&P said in a statement.

The outlook is negative.

At the same time, S&P lowered Crimea's Ukraine national scale rating to 'uaBB' from 'uaBBB-'.

The downgrade follows the downgrade of Ukraine on January 28, 2014.

"Our view also incorporates our assessments of the republic's low debt, conservative debt policies, and sound financial performance in recent years," S&P experts said. "We also factor in our view that Crimea lacks revenue predictability and has very low budgetary flexibility in terms of revenues and expenditures. Crimea relies heavily on subsidies and excise tax revenues and has high expenditure needs, due in our view to the "volatile and underfunded" Ukrainian institutional framework. Crimea has low wealth levels, weak financial management practices, negative liquidity, and contingent liabilities related to its municipalities and companies."