Greece strongly criticizes further downgrade of its credit rating by Moody's

Mon, Mar07, 2011

ATHENS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Greece strongly criticized the new downgrade of its credit ability rating by international rating agency Moody's on Monday.

Citing concerns over the success of the current Stability and Growth program implemented by the Greek government since 2010 to tackle an acute debt crisis, Moody's further downgraded the Greek sovereign debt rating by three notches from BA1 to B1 with a negative outlook.

The rating agency justified the decision, arguing that despite the progress made so far, Greece still faces difficulties in revenue collection, and the austerity measures and structural reforms introduced may prove inadequate to avoid an eventual restructure of the Greek debt.

Greece may not secure further support by European Union and International Monetary Fund, when the current multi-billion euro aid package Athens secured last May to avoid default, ends in 2013, Moody's analysts stressed.

The new downgrade by Moody's is totally "unjustified" and proves once again the urgent need for better regulation of international ratings agencies, replied the Greek Finance Ministry with a strong- worded statement released on Monday.

"The downgrade does not reflect an objective and balanced assessment of the conditions Greece is presently facing," said the statement, adding that "such unjustified decisions can initiate damaging self-fulfilling prophecies and certainly strengthen the arguments for tighter regulation of the rating agencies themselves."

Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings have also warned that they could further downgrade Greece from the current BB+ level in their previous assessments.
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