Fitch Teleconf Fri. 9/19 To Discuss Sovereign Review:
Global Recovery Under Way But Insecure

Fitch Ratings-New York/London/Hong Kong- September 18, 2003: Fitch Ratings will host a conference call on Friday, September 19 at 9:30 a.m. NY Time & 2:30 p.m. London Time to discuss its semi-annual Sovereign Review released today. In the report, Fitch forecasts growing momentum in the global recovery in the coming years, with world GDP growth of 3% per year in 2004-05, but warns that imbalances in the global economy could undermine the strength and durability of the recovery.

Speakers include: Lionel Price, Managing Director and Chief Economist, who will outline Fitch’s forecasts for the global economy; Brian Coulton, Senior Director and head of Asian Sovereign Ratings, who will discuss China and the “strong dollar” policies followed by Asian central banks. Finally, Roger Scher, Managing Director and head of Latin American Sovereign Ratings, will discuss the financing needs of Emerging Markets more broadly and will discuss the brighter credit outlook in Brazil. Other Fitch sovereign analysts will be on hand during the Q & A session to respond to questions on specific countries.

Domestic participants should call +1-877-897-0442 and international participants should dial +1-706-643-7396 five minutes prior to the 9:30 a.m. EDT start time and give the title of the call, 'Fitch Sovereign'. To ensure that sufficient telephone lines are available for all companies, we would appreciate you using internal conferencing capabilities.

Interested parties who are not available for the teleconference will be able to hear a replay of the call starting on Friday, September 19 at 1:00 p.m. EDT until Friday, September 26 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Domestic listeners should dial +1-800-642-1687 and international listeners should dial +1-706-645-9291 and use the access code '2857480'

Additionally, a replay of the teleconference will be archived on the Fitch Ratings web site for three months. Interested parties can find the appropriate link at the 'Company Events & Online Media' link, which is located under the heading 'About Fitch' at 'www.fitchratings.com'. At the same web site, the full report, titled “Sovereign Review Autumn 2003,” can be found.