Ratings agency sees no impact from Budget

5.40 pm

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Thursday it saw no ratings impact from the Government's 2001/02 Budget.

"Since our revision of the outlook in March, the numbers are marginally better than our baseline scenario so overall there's no rating impact," Standard & Poor's associate director of sovereign ratings, Chew Ping told Reuters in a telephone interview from Singapore.

In March, Standard & Poor's affirmed New Zealand's foreign currency sovereign rating at AA-plus and revised the outlook to stable from negative.

"The 2000 to 2001 outturn looks better than what they projected and although this year might be a bit affected because of the global slowdown, that's very comfortably within the ratings."

Chew said the ratings agency was not concerned about an earlier announced increase in the government's cap in new spending, to just over NZ$6.1 billion from NZ$5.9 billion.

"It's a little breach but overall, it's still capped within the definition of fiscal prudence or even some sort of fiscal restraint and again it is not a worry for us," Chew said.

- NZPA

www.nzherald.co.nz/budget

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