India may get a sovereign rating downgrade: Fitch Ratings

13 Aug 2012 Evaluate

One thing that could act as an embarrassment to the government and increase its woes is going to be the downgrade of country’s sovereign rating. After Moody’s slashed India’s growth estimates last week, Fitch Ratings, which recently lowered India’s credit outlook to negative, has said that possibility of downgrading the country’s sovereign rating is more than 50 per cent in the next 12-24 months.

Negative outlook suggests that there is a more than likely chance of Fitch revising rating downwards from BBB- to BB+ in the next 12 to 24 months. Downgrading sovereign rating could impact investor sentiments and could lead to higher borrowing costs. While, the downgrade of credit outlook indicated that the country’s medium-to long-term growth potential could gradually deteriorate if further structural reforms are not hastened to create a more positive operational environment for business and private investments.

Earlier, in June mid, Fitch scaled down India’s sovereign credit outlook to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’. The rating agency had then went on to point out that the revision in outlook reflected the “heightened risks” that India’s medium-to-long-term growth potential would gradually deteriorate if further structural reforms are not hastened, including measures to enhance the effectiveness of the government and create a more positive operational environment for business and private investments. However, that time India’s sovereign rating at ‘BBB-’, a notch above the speculative grade was retained.

Recently, there has been slew of downgrades of India’s economic growth forecast from domestic, as well as international agencies including, Banking giant Citi, CLSA and Crisil to around 5.5 per cent, even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its quarterly policy review, had trimmed its growth forecast to 6.5 per cent from 7 per cent. 

© 2025 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×