Moody’s warns of ‘fiscal crisis’ in AAA nations

LONDON (AFP) – Ratings agency Moody’s warned on Tuesday of a “fiscal crisis” lasting “several years” in Britain, France, Germany and the United States, but saw no immediate threat to their top AAA credit assessments.

Moody’s said that although the financial crisis was nearing an end, AAA-rated nations will struggle to find the money to reduce huge public debts.

“The global macroeconomic and financial system crises may be close to an end, but the fiscal crisis in a number of AAA-rated countries will likely last for several years,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a key report.

“Among the challenges to major AAA-rated nations like the US, UK, France, and Germany will be the pace and sustainability of economic growth and future interest rate trends, both of which affect the countries’ ability to manage the significant debt burdens they have assumed as a result of the crisis.

“Still, the rating agency stresses that it does not see an immediate threat to the ratings of any of the 17 nations it currently rates AAA,” added Moody’s.

The report gave in-depth coverage of eight of its AAA-rated nations — the others being Austria, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Many countries saw their public finances balloon in the face of a global financial crisis which sparked a series of enormously expensive banking-sector bailouts — and a deep worldwide recession that slashed taxation revenues.

This sparked deep concern about potential downgrades to national credit ratings — which can make it more expensive for a country to borrow cash and finance deficits.