Fitch downgrade just a catch up to Moody's and S&P

Fitch last week downgraded Malta sovereign rating from A+ to A.

The PN is trying to fault government for this downgrade.  That's a joke.

Firstly there is pretty little any government can do in the first six months in so far as ratings are concerned for which it should seek credit or suffer fault.    A rating event does not happen overnight.  It reflects past events often with a considerable time lag.

Secondly Fitch's decison is a partial catch up to decisons taken by Moody's and S & P under previous government.

An A rating by Fitch is equivalent to an A rating by S & P and A2 by Moody's.   But Moody's downgraded Malta's rating to A3 ( one notch lower than  A2) as far back as 13.02.2012.   S & P downgraded Malta to BBB+ two grades below A) since 16.01.2013.

So Fitch's downgrade to A is still one grade above Moodys' and two grade above S&P and both Moody's and S & P ratings were earned under a PN government.

So what are the PN talking about?

For those who want to understand the comparative table of ratings :

Credit rating tier

 

Moody's		S&P		Fitch		DBRS		Descriptions
Long-term	Short-term	Long-term	Short-term	Long-term	Short-term	Long-term	Short-term
Aaa	P-1	AAA	A-1+	AAA	F1+	AAA	R-1H	Prime	Investment grade
Aa1		AA+		AA+		AA(high)		High grade
Aa2		AA		AA		AA	R-1M
Aa3		AA-		AA-		AA(low)
A1		A+	A-1	A+	F1	A(high)	R-1L	Upper medium grade
A2		A		A		A
A3	P-2	A-	A-2	A-	F2	A(low)
Baa1		BBB+		BBB+		BBB(high)	R-2H	Lower medium grade
Baa2	P-3	BBB	A-3	BBB	F3	BBB	R-2M
Baa3		BBB-		BBB-		BBB(low)	R-2L, R-3
Ba1	Not prime	BB+	B	BB+	B	BB(high)	R-4	Non-investment grade speculative	High yield (junk)
Ba2		BB		BB		BB
Ba3		BB-		BB-		BB(low)
B1		B+		B+		B(high)		Highly speculative
B2		B		B		B	R-5
B3		B-		B-		B(low)
Caa1		CCC+	C	CCC	C	CCC(high)		Substantial risks
Caa2		CCC				CCC
Caa3		CCC-				CCC(low)
Ca		CC				CC(high)		Extremely speculative
						CC
						CC(low)
		C				C(high)
						C
						C(low)
C		D	/	DDD	/	D	D	In default
				DD
				D