Fitch Lowers US Outlook

FITCH said it will keep its rating for long-term United States debt at the top AAA level, despite a congressional panel's failure to agree on long-term deficit cuts. But it is lowering its outlook to negative.

It said on Monday that it has less confidence in the US government's ability to take the necessary steps to rein in the deficit.

A special congressional panel failed last week to reach agreement on US$1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over the next decade. The impasse triggered automatic cuts of the same amount, which are due to start at beginning of 2013.

Moody's Investors Services and Standard & Poor's also left their ratings unchanged last week. But Moody's may lower its rating if Congress backed off the automatic cuts.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alibaba's Jack Ma expresses Yahoo interest

Image
Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said he is very interested in buying all ofYahoo Inc. [File photo] Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of China's Alibaba Group, has said he is "very interested" in buying all of struggling Yahoo Inc. Alibaba spokesperson John Spelich confirmed that Ma made the remarks during his keynote speech at Stanford University in response to a question from a member of the audience. "Alibaba is very important to Yahoo, so is Yahoo to Alibaba," said Ma during a Q&A session. When he was asked which part of Yahoo he was interesting in, Ma responded, "the whole piece of Yahoo", Reuters reported. After Yahoo fired its CEO Carol Bartz, several U.S. media outlets singled out Ma as the outstanding candidate to succeed Bartz. Yahoo has reportedly also received inquiries from Microsoft, News Corporation and private equity firm Silver Lake Europe LLP. Alibaba faces a number of obstacles if it proceeds with its planned purchase of Yaho...
Keep reading

Shanghai port consolidates its position as world's busiest

Image
Shanghai, the world's busiest container port, will consolidate its title this year and leverage its record throughput to become a multi-faceted provider of port services. Containers lie at the Waigaoqiao port in Shanghai yesterday when the city witnessed 30 million TEUs cross its ports. [Shanghai Daily] The city, which overtook Singapore as the world's biggest container handler last year, saw its annual container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) yesterday. The figure hits an unprecedented level in the world's port history and marks a new leg in Shanghai's voyage to become a global shipping center by 2020. China's remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which went from 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010. The city's customs oversaw a total of US$790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year - a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase. And its port handled 23.9 mil...
Keep reading

Trade surplus falls as export reliance fades

CHINA'S traffic surplus fell by 6.4 percent in 2010 from a year earlier after supervision efforts to enlarge imports as well as revoke faith upon exports. The General Administration of Customs pronounced a surplus had been cut to US$183.1 billion. The proportion of surplus to total traffic worth declined to 6.2 percent in 2010 from 2009's 8.9 percent as well as 2008's 11.6 percent. Trade worth finished during US$2.97 trillion in 2010, a surge of 34.7 percent from a year earlier. Exports increasing 31.3 percent to US$1.58 trillion, whilst imports jumped to US$1.39 trillion, up 38.7 percent year-on-year. "While a lot of uncertainties still exist in a external world, China is correct to accelerate a gait of a economic restructuring as well as rely less upon exports," pronounced Xue Jun, an researcher during CITIC Securities Co. Both exports as well as imports shot to a jot down high final month. Exports in Dec increasing 17.9 percent upon an annual basis to US$154.1 ...
Keep reading