(Updates with comments on IMF aid, background)
BRUSSELS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Lithuania believes it can convince rating agency Moody's not to cut the country's credit rating, Finance Minister Algirdas Semeta said on Tuesday.
Moody's earlier put Lithuania's foreign and local currency bond ratings on review for a possible downgrade, citing a severe deterioration in the macroeconomic environment.
"We will discuss with the agency the measures that we are undertaking to ensure the stability of public finances and an economic recovery," Semeta told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union finance ministers.
"I believe measures we are implementing will allow us to maintain (the) macroeconomic situation and ... the rating," he said.
Semeta said he still expected Lithuania would avoid requesting financial aid from the International Monetary Fund to support its recession-hit economy.
"We are carefully monitoring the macroeconomic situation and under current conditions we believe IMF intervention is not needed," he said.
"But we understand that the situation around the globe is changing very rapidly ... and this means we cannot reject it (the possibility of IMF aid) in the future."
Latvia and Hungary, which like Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, were forced to go cap in hand to the IMF and EU for help to support their financial systems and exchange rates as the global financial crisis started to bite late last year. (Reporting by Marcin Grajewski, editing by Dale Hudson)