Moody's affirms Spain at Baa3 but outlook negative
By Sue Chang
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday affirmed Spain's sovereign rating at Baa3, keeping it at investment grade for the time being. However, it assigned a negative outlook to the rating as a reminder that a downgrade into junk territory is likely if conditions deteriorate further. "Moody's assessment that the risk of the Spanish sovereign losing market access has been materially reduced by the willingness of the European Central Bank to undertake outright purchases of Spanish government bonds to contain their price volatility," the ratings agency said. Still, the negative outlook reflects its belief that Spain's risks remain high and if the Spanish government happens to lose access to private markets, Moody's
will most likely downgrade the rating by several notches.
Decisione abb sorprendente, imho, il mancato downgrade; ben spiegata, però, dall'ultima parte, esplicativa (in modo anche abb goffo e puerile) di come si muovano oggi le agenzie di rating: l'avvertimento scomposto in modalità "inequivocabile" (several notches) fa dedurre un'ultima chance data agli spagnoli se seguiranno, rapidamente, le attese di cui la stessa agenzia è interprete (disinteressata, obviously
) e "facilitatrice".
Qui dati di bilancio e prospettive macro sono del tutto irrilevanti, lo si sapeva già, ma una chiarezza ed impudenza simile non ricordo di averle viste in altri comunicati. Sfacciati.
