S&P likely to follow regular rating review schedule for China: exec

EghtesadOnline: Standard & Poor's is likely to follow its regular ratings review schedule for China, and does not see any basis at this point in time for an out-of-schedule committee meeting, a senior director at the ratings agency told Reuters on Monday.

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29 May 2017

S&P has an AA- rating on China with a negative outlook that it has maintained since March last year. That rating is one notch above those of Fitch Rating and Moody's Investors Service, according to Reuters.

"I don't think there has been anything that could justify the calling of an out-of-schedule committee at this point in time, 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 an interview.

Tan declined to say when the next regular review would be.

All major ratings agencies have high ratings on China, and that means nobody is expecting any form of financial instability anytime in the near future, Tan told Reuters by phone.

Last week, Moody's cut China's sovereign ratings by one notch 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.