By Erin McCarthy
The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2013
The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2013
A deal to fund the U.S. government and extend the country’s borrowing authority through early 2014 isn’t enough to alleviate market uncertainty, credit-ratings firm DBRS Inc. said Wednesday.
Nor does it change the firm’s negative outlook on the U.S. debt rating, Fergus McCormick, head of the sovereign ratings team at DBRS, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Last week DBRS placed the U.S. debt rating under review for potential downgrade, citing the “growing risk of a selective default.”
Senate leaders Wednesday struck an 11th-hour agreement to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and fully reopen the federal government. The Senate plan would fund federal agencies at current spending levels through Jan. 15 and extend the nation’s borrowing authority through Feb. 7. Under those conditions, DBRS would likely keep the U.S. rating under review with negative implications, and would likely maintain that status in early 2014 when the next set of deadlines approach.
“What we’ve seen so far does not change the outlook,” Mr. McCormick said. “If they kick the can down the road for a few weeks or a few months, it doesn’t really remove the uncertainty prevailing in the market.”
The firm, however, has had discussions regarding whether the U.S. is worthy of its triple-A status, he said.
“There are some people on the rating committee of DBRS who believe that the triple-A rating of the United States should no longer be triple-A,” he said.
Mr. McCormick, however, believes the world’s largest economy still deserves the top-notch rating because its capacity to pay, outside of the debt ceiling issue, is “unparalleled.”
But he warned that the U.S. needs to resolve these fiscal and structural problems in the longer term to maintain investor confidence.
“If these [issues] aren’t addressed in the coming years then the United States’ creditworthiness would severely be affected.”
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