India Furious With Rating Firms Giving It Insulting BBB-minus Rating at Bottom of Investment Grade

An Indian official has once again expressed outrage over poor Indian investment grading by the Fitch, S&P and Moody's sovereign global rating agencies.

Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of the EAC to the Prime Minister pleaded that India should be rated at least one or two grades higher than what it is at present by global rating agencies.

India just about makes it past the investment grade in the ratings of the agencies, which is "utterly absurd", PTI quoted Sanyal as saying on Monday.

"In terms of sovereign ratings, if India was fairly rated, it should be at least one, if not two grades higher. There is no reason for India to be at the bottom of the investment grade," Sanyal said of his own country.

Fitch has retained its sovereign rating for India at the lowest investment grade of 'BBB-' for more than 16 years now. In June 2022, Fitch revised up its outlook for India's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) to 'stable,' from 'negative,' after a gap of two years.

S&P and Moody's have also maintained such ratings for India at the same level - 'BBB-' and 'BAA3', respectively - with a 'stable' outlook.

Sanyal said frameworks of the rating agencies should be questioned, and India should realise that those can be replaced with "ease". But the rating agencies had stood their ground.

Indian officials have often spoken out against the rating rationale of agencies based out of the West and have regularly held meetings with said firms in a futile bid to push for an upgrade. Earlier this year, senior officials led by chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran reportedly held a meeting with Fitch executives.

In their latest assessments, global rating agencies have acknowledged India's robust growth outlook compared to peers and still-resilient external finances. However, they have also flagged "weak public finances," reflected in high deficits and debt relative to peers.

Anonymous