Standard and Poor's on Friday affirmed Estonia's long- and short- term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at 'AA-/A-1+' with a 'stable' outlook.

The rating agency expects Estonia's economic growth to improve in 2014-17 as investment growth resumes and external demand stabilizes.

Estonia's key strengths are its strong public finances and low government leverage, which offsets relatively low per capita GDP, S&P said.

"We forecast consumption growth to strengthen, investor sentiment to improve, and external demand to gradually normalize," the agency said. "Strong public finances will remain a core support of the ratings, in our view," it added.

RTTNews