BackFitch upgrades Greece to investment grade on favourable debt-servicing structure
Dec 1 (Reuters) – Global ratings agency Fitch raised Greece’s rating to investment grade, citing the sharp downward trend in general government debt.
It raised the country’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BB+’ with a stable outlook.
Fitch’s upgrade, following a similar move from S&P Global Ratings in October, makes Greece’s bonds eligible for a wide range of bond indexes that require investment-grade ratings from multiple agencies.
“We also assess policy risks as relatively low, with a stable political backdrop and well-anchored fiscal prudence,” the agency said in a statement.
Greece’s debt has already been trading at levels in line with investment-grade ratings, since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s election win in May raised hopes that the upgrades would follow.
Fitch expects the Greek economy to expand by 2.4% in 2023, a slight upward revision since the agency’s last review.
Greece lost its investment-grade credit rating, which implies a low risk of default, in 2010 when its decade-long debt crisis erupted, forcing it to sign up for international bailouts worth about 260 billion euros to stay afloat.
(Reporting by Sri Hari N S, Lefteris Papadimas and Yoruk Bahceli; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) (([email protected];)) Keywords: GREECE RATINGS/FITCH (UPDATE 1)
