S&P: Affirms Spain's AA/A-1+ Credit Rating, Outlook Negative
LONDON (MNI) - Ratings agency Standard and Poor's has today affirmed Spain's AA/A-1+ credit rating. The outlook remains negative.
S&P said it believes that Spain will continue to adhere to its front-loaded budgetary, although enduring economic and financial weaknesses will likely continue to weigh on the current ratings.
S&P said the negative outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade if Spain's fiscal position deviates materially from the government's budgetary targets for 2011 and 2012
Standard & Poor's credit analyst Marko Mrsnik said that the rating reflects the benefits of a diversified economy.
"The ratings on Spain reflect the benefits of what we view as a modern and relatively diversified economy, as well as our opinion of the government's continuing political resolve to deal with the outstanding challenges, as reflected in a significant acceleration in both budgetary consolidation and the structural reform effort since 2010," he said.
Full Text Of Statement Below:
Following the 0.2% contraction in GDP we estimate for 2010, we anticipate that the economy will return to positive growth rates of approximately 0.7% in 2011 and 1.5% in 2012.
This recovery, in our opinion, is subject to significant downside risk due to a combination of the private sector's continuous deleveraging; what we consider to be restrictive fiscal policies; limited growth prospects, in our opinion, on the back of the global economic recovery; persistently high unemployment; financial-sector stress; and large net external debt (we forecast a level equivalent to 78% of GDP in 2011). We believe that these factors make the economy vulnerable to sudden shifts in external financing conditions, possibly complicating the country's economic recovery.
In an unfavorable economic climate in 2010, the government put in place what we view as a substantial reform effort, including a front-loaded budgetary consolidation strategy and a comprehensive set of structural reforms. We estimate that the 2010 general government deficit target of 9.3% of GDP was met, on the back of the government's fiscal package involving tax hikes and spending cuts.
This is mainly due to the significantly better-than-expected central government deficit (5.1% of GDP versus a planned 5.9%), more than compensating for the slippage at the local and regional government level. We anticipate that the general government deficit will decline to 6.3% of GDP in 2011, broadly in line with the government's target of 6%, and to 5.1% of GDP in 2012. The difference between our 2011 forecast and that of the government is attributable to our lower forecast of underlying economic growth, and its impact on the budget.
As a result, we forecast an increase in net government debt to 61.6% of GDP in 2011 and 65% in 2012, from an estimated 56.2% in 2010. Further growth in borrowing costs could result in higher interest outlays than the government currently plans, although the increase in the average interest rate on Spain's outstanding government debt in 2010 was negligible (3.69%, versus 3.53% in 2009 and 4.32% in 2008)--despite negative market sentiment--thus limiting the potential additional burden on the budget. Our current government debt projection does not include the anticipated income from the announced partial privatization of the airport operator AENA and the National Lottery.
Similarly, it does not include potential additional capital injections by the state to further strengthen the financial sector. In our opinion, such costs could surpass 20 billion--a level recently mentioned by the government--with the excess driven either by higher-than-expected losses in financial institutions' property-related loan portfolios; failure of financial-sector entities involved in integration processes to reduce their operating expenses; or higher funding costs, since, in our opinion, the financial sector's approximate 760 billion of gross external debt at year-end 2010 leaves it vulnerable to exogenous shocks.
We believe that in the medium to long term, the recently adopted pension reform program, if fully implemented, will likely lead to important savings in social security outlays. The reform program includes increases in the retirement age--to 67 for standard retirement and 63 for early retirement--an extension of the pension calculation period to 25 years from 15, and the introduction of a "sustainability factor" linking the financial sustainability of the pension system to the future evolution of life expectancy.
While it is too early, in our view, to assess the impact of labor reform on Spain's economic growth prospects, we believe that the reform measures implemented to date are a step in the right direction, though stopping short of a fundamental overhaul of the labor market. Additional labor reform measures planned by the government for the first quarter of 2011 in the areas of active market policies and collective bargaining procedures could, however, further reduce some of the structural rigidities that we believe constrain labor demand in the economy.
A downgrade could also occur if the impending correction in private-sector leverage results in what we would consider to be a disorderly adjustment in the financial sector, leading to a sharper deterioration of the Spanish government's balance sheet or lower economic growth than we currently anticipate, possibly coupled with resurging deflationary pressures. Moreover, we could lower the rating if vulnerabilities persist related to external financing conditions or delays in the implementation of structural reforms.
Conversely, we could revise the outlook to stable if the government meets or exceeds its budgetary objectives in 2011 and 2012, risks to external financing conditions subside, and Spain's economic growth prospects prove to be more buoyant than we currently envisage as a result of a smooth economic adjustment and restructuring process.
(imarketnews.com)