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Sovereign Credit Profile
The credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service lowered its outlook on the US government's debt on Friday to "negative" from "stable", citing the cost of rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress. Moody's retained its top triple-A credit rating on U.S. government debt, though it is the last of the three major credit rating agencies to do so. Fitch Ratings lowered its rating to AA+ from AAA in August, and Standard and Poor's downgraded the US in 2011. A reduced outlook, however, raises the risk that Moody's could eventually strip its triple-A rating from the US as well. A lower rating on US debt could cost taxpayers if it leads borrowers to demand higher interest rates on Treasury bills and notes. The yield on the 10-year Treasury has risen significantly since July, from about 3.9 per cent to 4.6 per cent Friday, an unusually sharp rise. Some market analysts have said the August Fitch downgrade may have contributed to that increase, though most point to other .
S & P Global Ratings expects most Asia Pacific sovereign credit ratings to remain unchanged in the next one to two years despite continued pressures posed by Covid-19."We have stable outlooks on more than two-thirds of 21 long-term sovereign ratings in the region currently," it said in a report published on Wednesday.Covid-19 vaccines rolled out in several countries from late 2020 have helped to reduce pandemic-related uncertainties on the trends of economic and fiscal indicators.The better clarity has allowed a few positive rating actions on governments that showed strong credit metrics for their respective rating levels at the beginning of the year."We expect much of Asia Pacific to return to relatively strong economic performance once the region has Covid-19 under control," said the report."Many parts of the region have been significantly affected by the pandemic and have seen sharp economic contractions in 2020. However, we believe the episode has not seriously damaged their ..