Saturday 7 April 2012

American credit downgrade

Rating agency demotes US credit status
An independent credit ratings agency has cut the United States’ ratings for a second time, arguing that the country has not been successful in reducing its federal debt.


26 April, 2012

In a move that could affect the decisions of other ratings agencies, the US Egan-Jones agency downgraded America’s credit rating from AA+ to AA on Thursday.

The agency referred to “the lack of any tangible progress on addressing the problems and the continued rise in debt to GDP,” as being the main reasons behind the downgrade.

Egan-Jones had downgraded America's top-level AAA credit ratings once before as well, in July -- one month before Standard & Poor's ratings agency did the same.

The reason for the downgrading as cited both then and now was partly due to the continued political gridlock in Washington.

"We'd like to see some progress towards reducing the fiscal deficit in the next six to twelve months," said the agency’s managing director, Sean Egan.

Analysts say for the first time since World War II, the “US debt exceeds 100 percent.” They even forecast a 106 percent rise by the end of the year, which they call an "inflection point".

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