The Finance and Economy Ministry announced that a British credit rating agency, Fitch, will upgrade South Korea's sovereign credit rating to A-minus ... from the current triple-B-plus. The director of the ministry's international finance bureau indicated that Fitch will announce the ratings upgrade "within weeks." The official explained that he was informed of the planned upgrading when he met with a Fitch senior executive in London Thursday. Fitch is one of the world's three most renowned credit rating agencies, along with Standard & Poor's and Moody's who are both from the US. Fitch downgraded South Korea's sovereign ratings by 12 notches to B-minus ... from double-A-minus in late 19-97 when Korea was hit by a currency crisis. The ratings agency raised Korea's rating eight notches to triple-B in March of Two-thousand.