New credit ratings agency in the works

Russia and China have reached an agreement to create a joint credit rating agency and are working on a series of measures to make trade easier, Russia's finance minister said on Tuesday, a sign of growing ties between the two neighbors.

Speaking during a trip to China, Anton Siluanov told journalists that the new rating agency would be modeled on existing ones.

"We would like (the agency's) ratings to be apolitical," Siluanov said in comments sent by the ministry's press service.