Explore Business Standard
Moody's Ratings on Friday said with a 7 per cent GDP expansion in 2025 and 6.4 per cent in the next year, India will lead growth among emerging markets and across the Asia Pacific region. Moody's also said that India's domestic growth drivers underpin its economic resilience amid global uncertainty. Although the Indian rupee has continued to weaken against the dollar, most rated companies have active currency risk management or strong financial buffers, while investment-grade entities have demonstrated access to international capital markets. "India will lead growth among emerging markets and across the region, with GDP growing 7 per cent in 2025 and 6.4 per cent in 2026," Moody's Ratings said. Its projected average GDP growth in APAC (Asia-Pacific) will remain steady at 3.4 per cent in 2026 compared with 3.3 per cent in 2024 and expected growth of 3.6 per cent in 2025. On a weighted average basis, emerging markets will drive GDP growth in the region, with average growth of 5.6 p
Moody's Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its top credit rating Friday, citing successive governments' failure to stop a rising tide of debt. Moody's lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1 but said the United States "retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency.' Moody's is the last of the three major rating agencies to lower the federal government's credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded federal debt in 2011 and Fitch Ratings followed in 2023. In a statement, Moody's said: "We expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of (the U.S. economy) by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.' Extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, a priority of the Republican-controlled Congress, Moody's said, would add $4 trillion over the next decade to
Moody's Ratings on Wednesday said India's economic growth will exceed 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal, up from 6.3 per cent this year, on higher government capex and consumption boost from tax cuts and interest rate reduction. Projecting a stable outlook for the banking sector, Moody's said although the operating environment of Indian banks will remain favourable in the next fiscal, their asset quality will deteriorate moderately after substantial improvements in recent years, with some stress in unsecured retail loans, microfinance loans and small business loans. Banks' profitability will remain adequate as declines in net interest margins (NIMs) are likely to be marginal amid modest rate cuts, it said. Moody's said that following a temporary slowdown in mid-2024, India's economic growth is expected to reaccelerate and record one of the fastest rates among large economies globally. "Government capital expenditure, tax cuts for middle-class income groups to boost consumption and ..
Increasing foreign investment limit in the insurance sector to 100 per cent from 74 per cent is likely to attract more global players in the growing Indian insurance market, Moody's Ratings said on Tuesday. Additionally, strong premium growth is expected to boost profitability of the sector. Currently, many foreign insurers are present in the country through joint ventures and could seek to increase their ownership stakes in their Indian affiliates following this change in regulation. "We view foreign investment as credit positive because it increases product innovation. The presence of foreign stakeholders also brings benefits in the areas of capital adequacy, financial flexibility and governance standards," Moody's Ratings said in a statement. Presenting Budget 2025-26, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to raise the foreign investment limit to 100 per cent from 74 per cent in the insurance sector as part of new-generation financial sector reforms. Moreover, Moody's ..
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday flaunted India's unblemished track record of not faltering on any of its fiscal consolidation or debt reduction targets as she seemed to shrug off the passiveness of agencies like Moody's which have not upgraded India's ratings. Sitharaman in her budget for fiscal year beginning April treaded a fine line between fiscal prudence and providing a thrust to growth as she not only gave the middle class the biggest-ever tax relief but also unveiled a glide path for reducing fiscal deficit next year and debt as percentage of GDP by 2031. India, she said, had to borrow more during the pandemic to meet the fiscal needs of the economy amid global challenges, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical conflicts in two theatres. "Despite all these we have shown a commitment and following the commitment to the last word as regards fiscal deficit and the glide path that we should follow," she told PTI in an interview. "We have, not one year have we ...
Moody's Ratings on Wednesday said it has upgraded Tata Motors Ltd's corporate family rating by two notches to Ba1 from Ba3 citing sound governance practices, particularly the company's creditor-friendly financial policies, track record and management prudence. The ratings agency also said it has upgraded Tata Motors Ltd's (TML) senior unsecured instruments' ratings to Ba1 from Ba3. As per Moody's obligations rated Ba are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk. Moody's said in a statement that it has also maintained the positive outlook on all ratings. "TML's two-notch rating upgrade with a positive outlook follows the company's sustained track record in achieving revenue growth, improving profitability and reducing debt using its large free cash flow despite its elevated capital expenditure to refresh its products," Moody's Ratings Senior Vice President Kaustubh Chaubal said. The latest rating action considers the impact of TML's sound ...
Moody's Ratings on Thursday said capital requirements will remain high for Indian corporates as they go in for capacity expansion and inorganic growth spending. Moody's estimates that 16 of the 23 rated companies will require USD 70-100 billion of funding annually in the next two years for growth spending, refinancing requirements and shareholder payments. While improving domestic liquidity and companies' internal cash flows can cover a large portion of their capital needs, offshore funding will remain an important funding channel, it said. "Capacity expansion, inorganic growth spending, refinancing and working capital needs, along with shareholder payments, will keep capital requirements high for nonfinancial corporates in India," Moody's Ratings said in a statement. It said capital spending by non-financial corporates will remain high as they expand their capacities to cater to the strong consumption growth expected in the country, at a time when their capacity utilization is ...
Rating agency Moody's on Wednesday said it has affirmed Tata Motors' Ba3 corporate family rating while maintaining a positive outlook on all ratings. Concurrently, Moody's has also affirmed Tata Motors Ltd's (TML) Ba3 senior unsecured instrument ratings, Moody's Investors Service said in a statement. As per Moody's obligations rated 'Ba' are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk with the modifier 3 indicating a ranking in the lower end of that generic rating category. "Moody's has also maintained a positive outlook on all ratings," it added. The rating affirmation follows TML's announcement earlier this week that its board of directors have agreed in principle the demerger of its operations into two separate listed companies for commercial vehicles (CVs) and passenger vehicles (PVs), respectively, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, it said. "While the demerger would result in TML's remaining operations comprising only CVs, the