Govt ups engagement with rating agencies to show economic strength: FinMin

MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha that the Centre has made sustained efforts to boost India's economic outlook, positively influencing its sovereign credit profile

The government has strengthened its engagement with global rating agencies through a structured interactive process, during which the overall macroeconomic scenario is highlighted before them, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Sovereign credit rating agencies such as S&P, Fitch, and Moody's have assigned India the lowest investment-grade rating.

Moody's Ratings has assigned a 'Baa3' rating on India, with a 'stable' outlook, while S&P Global Ratings has a 'BBB-' with a 'positive' outlook. Fitch rates India at 'BBB-' with a 'stable' outlook, while Morningstar DBRS in May upgraded India's rating to 'BBB', with a stable trend.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the government has made sustained efforts to strengthen India's overall economic outlook, thereby positively impacting its credit profile.

These include maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals, such as steady growth, price stability, fiscal consolidation, a resilient external sector, robust foreign exchange reserves, a strong banking sector and enhancing physical and digital infrastructure to support investment.

Further, the emphasis laid by the government on robust capital expenditure, infrastructure build-up, financial sector reforms, ease of doing business, employment and skill development contributes to long-term economic stability and growth.

"In addition, the government has strengthened its engagement with these agencies through a structured interactive process, during which it presents its perspectives on the overall macroeconomic scenario and addresses specific considerations of the agencies," Chaudhary said.

Rating agencies use various quantitative and qualitative factors to determine the ratings of countries, including India.

These factors are broadly grouped under the major categories such as economic strength, fiscal strength and flexibility, monetary performance and resilience, external resilience, and institutional strength, Chaudhary added.