Beijing: Standard & Poor’s is likely to follow its regular ratings review schedule for China, and does not see any basis at this point for an out-of-schedule committee meeting, a senior director at the ratings agency told Reuters on Monday.
Moody’s Investors Service last week cut its sovereign ratings on China by a notch, putting them on par with those of Fitch Ratings.
That put S&P one step above the two agencies, holding an AA- rating with a negative outlook that it has maintained since March 2016.
“I don’t think there has been anything that could justify the calling of an out-of-schedule committee now, so we are likely to follow our regular review pattern,” Kim Eng Tan, S&P’s Asia-Pacific senior director of sovereign ratings, said in a phone interview.
Tan declined to say when the next regular review would be.
Moody’s cut China’s sovereign ratings to A1, saying it expects the financial strength of the world’s second-largest economy to erode in coming years as growth slows and debt continues to mount.
Fitch on Friday maintained its A+ rating on China, citing its “strong macroeconomic track record”, though the agency also noted an accompanying build-up of imbalances and vulnerabilities.
But nobody is expecting any form of financial instability anytime in the near future, Tan told Reuters.