cONTINUE rEADING
As of this September, Moody’s rating agency has retained Malta’s A3 rating whilst praising the local government for the efforts aimed at fiscal consolidation, particularly bringing the deficit below 3% at the end of last year.
The agency maintained that the main components behind the current local environment, despite some local economic obstacles and debt ratios, were directly related to the following key factors:
- The successful government consolidation strategy which resulted in the 2011 fiscal imbalance below 3% of GDP under the excessive deficit procedure;
- The expectation that debt ratios will be revived in 2013;
- The continued presence of macroeconomic and fiscal downside risks.
Malta’s country ceilings were also revised, wherein the long-term foreign currency bond ceiling was changed to A1; the long-term foreign currency deposit ceiling was changed to A3; the short-term foreign currency deposit was changed to P-2, and the country risk ceiling was changed to A1.
