Not one eurozone country deserved a credit rating upgrade in the past quarter, while some, such as Spain, deserved six-notch downgrades, new data show. Indeed, 13 of the worst-performing 15 countries were European (see Q-o-Q change column; source: CMA data).
The UK, by contrast, did deserve a one-notch upgrade. (The bad news is that even an upgrade leaves the UK’s implied rating one notch below its actual rating of AAA.) Far greater winners were Guatemala, Uruguay, Egypt, Bahrain and Colombia, which all merited multi-notch upgrades. Read more
… in a competition no-one would want to win. In its sovereign risk review, Moody’s has compiled a “misery index” – the addition of the forecast unemployment rate to the forecast fiscal deficit, 2010. It isn’t pretty. The UK’s forecast fiscal deficit – the highest of any country on the chart – places the country in a higher state of misery than Iceland, and only just less miserable than Greece. The top five are not, perhaps, surprising – but numbers six and eight should give us pause for thought. 
Chris Giles
Michael Steen
Robin Harding
Ralph Atkins
Claire Jones
