[Pak-Media] PR--Asia-Pacific Sovereigns Face Mixed Outlook, External Risks, Although Many Have Stronger Balance Sheets, Says S&P Report

Please find below the press release titled: "Asia-Pacific Sovereigns Face Mixed Outlook, External Risks, Although Many Have Stronger Balance Sheets, Says S&P Report"

 

Also attached is the detailed S&P report for your reference: "Asia-Pacific Sovereigns: Mixed Outlook In An Uncertain Year"

 

Thanks & best regards,

Jyoti Parmar

_______________________

To view this email in a browser window or on a mobile device, click here. 

 

 

Asia-Pacific Sovereigns Face Mixed Outlook, External Risks, Although Many Have Stronger Balance Sheets, Says S&P Report   SINGAPORE (Standard & Poor's) March 6, 2012--Although it is a mixed picture for Asia-Pacific sovereigns for the next 12-18 months, much of the region faces global and domestic risks from a relatively strong position, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in a report titled, "Asia-Pacific Sovereigns: Mixed Outlook In An Uncertain Year," published today.   "We expect neither sovereign upgrades nor downgrades to dominate the trend in this region," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Kim Eng Tan. "Still, the global growth outlook, external funding pressures, domestic political issues, and unexpected changes in policy or economic environments can put pressure on ratings."   Asia-Pacific economies would inevitably feel the impact if another major economic or financial shock materializes. The experience of 2008-2009 showed that deepening regional trade does not offer a strong shield against a sharp recession in the developed economies.   "Economic performance in much of Asia-Pacific held up reasonably well mainly due to the massive Chinese economic stimulus," Mr. Tan said. The region could still benefit from another Chinese stimulus if a new shock hits. However, it may not come quite as strongly or quickly as some may hope due to domestic political reasons in the country, he noted.   If another global recession occurs, we expect it to have the strongest downward pressure on sovereign creditworthiness in Japan and Vietnam, where the outlooks on the long-term ratings are already negative. For Japan, a new economic slowdown would accelerate the increase in debt beyond the already significant expansion that we project in the next three years. It would also make an increase in the consumption tax rate more unlikely.   In Vietnam, although government measures implemented since 2011 have helped to stabilize the economy over the past year, confidence remains weak. Another economic slowdown or a significant easing of macroeconomic policy could trigger a new wave of resident capital outflows and higher inflation.   "Besides Japan and Vietnam, economies that are major exporters, borrowers of commercial international funds, and those that have seen high credit growth face risks from external shocks," Mr. Tan said. Still, many of the key sovereigns in the region maintain strong external balance sheets and modest government debt levels. Their banking sectors also show few signs of stress at this time. Consequently, we expect most of them to weather our base-case scenario--a mild recession in Europe, no major international financial disruptions, and a soft landing in China--with little damage to their credit standing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Media Contact: Cecilia Ho, Hong Kong, (852) 2532-8061; cecilia_ho@standardandpoors.com   Primary Credit Analyst:  KimEng Tan, Singapore; kimeng_tan@standardandpoors.com   Secondary Contact:  Elena Okorotchenko, Singapore; elena_okorotchenko@standardandpoors.com   About Standard & Poor's  Standard & Poor's, a part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings. With offices in 23 countries, Standard & Poor's is an important part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 150 years in providing investors with information and independent benchmarks for their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

Ratings may not be compiled into a database or systematically distributed or shared for commercial purposes in a manner that
substitutes for a paid Standard & Poor's service

Regulatory Affairs and Disclaimers l Privacy Notice l Terms of Use Copyright © 2012 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC (S&P) a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of S&P. The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P, its affiliates, and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions, regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION. In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Credit-related analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P's opinions and analyses do not address the suitability of any security. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor. While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process. S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain credit-related analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and www.ratingsdirect.com and www.globalcreditportal.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.
If you do not wish to receive any more promotional e-mails from Standard & Poor's, please click here to unsubscribe. This message has been sent to you by Standard & Poor's, because you subscribe to one or more of our media lists..

 

---

The information contained in this message is intended only for the recipient, and may be a confidential attorney-client communication or may otherwise be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, please be aware that any dissemination or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. reserves the right, subject to applicable local law, to monitor, review and process the content of any electronic message or information sent to or from McGraw-Hill e-mail addresses without informing the sender or recipient of the message. By sending electronic message or information to McGraw-Hill e-mail addresses you, as the sender, are consenting to McGraw-Hill processing any of your personal data therein.