Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ubeid announced that the downgrade rating action recently issued to the Egyptian economy by international agency Standard and Poor’s is based on miscalculations, reported Al-Ahram.
The minister asserted that S&P’s inaccuracies were caused by the inclusion of Egypt’s future debts in the calculations, without taking into account due markdowns. Ubeid added that matter was had been brought before the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
S&P’s has lowered its long-term foreign currency issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on the Arab Republic of Egypt to double-'B'-plus from triple-'B'-minus. All other ratings on Egypt were also lowered by one notch. The downgrade reflects the view that the government's financial and structural reform measures will at best slow down, rather than reverse, the recent deterioration in Egypt's creditworthiness. The outlook is stable. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
