Sunday 25 September 2016

S&P moving goalposts again, says Sinckler.




On Friday, Standard & Poor’s reduced Barbados sovereign credit rating down from B to B- and once again chided Prime Minister Freundel Stuart’s administration for its high fiscal deficit.
“It is unfortunate but not generally unexpected,” Sinckler told the SUNDAY SUN last night. “Once Moody’s took action earlier this year we expected Standard and Poor’s would have likely done similarly, though, of course, we had hoped they wouldn’t. 
 “It is pretty much the same premise as before. They (rating agencies) prefer to see a faster and deeper rate of deficit reduction, leading to a stabilisation of the debt variables and now seemingly a faster rate of growth.”  (BA)