Finance Ministry pitches for rating upgrade with S&P

26 Apr 2013 Evaluate

In a bid to prevent any more downgrade from rating agencies which would take India's rating to 'Junk' status, the Government made a strong defense towards upgrading the sovereign rating to the representatives of Standard and Poor's saying that the recent policy reforms would resolve deficit issues and boost investment in the country. In August last year, the rating agency had revised its outlook on India's long-term credit rating to ‘negative' from ‘stable' with a sovereign rating of ‘BBB-’ which is the lowest investment grade.

During the meeting, the finance ministry led by the Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, gave details about various reforms measures initiated and its impact during last few months. On the other hand, S&P agency expressed concern on twin deficits- fiscal and current account, inflation and subsidy bills.  However, Arvind Mayaram emphasized that the Government has taken bold and hard decisions to contain the country’s deficits and working on a strategies to eliminate some of the fuel subsidy.

Moreover, the Government constituted Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI), which has cleared projects with investment worth $14 billion. The government has also approved Rs 70,000 crore worth of projects. With these initiatives, investment is expected to flow in and which in turn will create demand, he added.

Presently, the Government is meeting rating agencies to improve the country’s outlook because any lowering in rating grade will take it to junk investment grade, making it difficult for the country to attract foreign investments or the companies to borrow from abroad. The meeting with rating agencies started with Fitch earlier this month and now Moody’s is scheduled to meet the Finance Ministry officials during first week of May. The rating agencies will announce their stand on ratings and outlook within a month.   

 

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