EN
The need to obtain information regarding credit rating of entities, both public and private was the reason for rating agencies development. A worldwide rating market is characterised by a dominance of the largest international agencies, including: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. Rating is one of the tools increasing the competiveness of a local government unit. The purpose of this study is to present the nature of rating as well as rating criteria of local government units employed by rating agencies.