Moody's raises India's short-term foreign currency rating to investment grade P-3

10 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Rating agency, Moody's Investors Service has raised India's short-term foreign currency rating to an investment grade to Prime (P-3), signaling satisfactory ability to repay short-term obligations. The development is likely to aid domestic companies to borrow funds from overseas markets at rates better than earlier when the short-term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposit was speculative or NP (not prime).

The recent up-gradation by Moody’s has come after Ministry of Finance sought clarification from the rating agency regarding the short-term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposit, which had not found mention in the earlier decision by Moody's.

The global rating agency’s upgrade has come in less than a month after it lifted India’s local currency debt rating by one notch to the lowest investment grade, in-line with the foreign currency bond ratings at Baa3 with a stable outlook. The upgrade in December was expected to encourage FIIs to increase their exposure in gilts and help companies raise funds from abroad at competitive rates.

The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the finance ministry is going to continue to engage rating agencies on regular basis to impress upon them the long-term structural strengths and sound fundamentals of the Indian economy. At present, six sovereign ratings agencies viz. Standard & Poor's, Moody's, DBRS, Fitch, Japanese Credit Rating Agency and the Rating and Investment Information Inc, assign ratings to India.

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