“Inflationary
pressures may be easing” - as the world economy sinks into a
deflationary depression.
Spain's
credit rating downgraded by Fitch as international bailout looms
Europe's
fourth largest economy now hovering just above junk status with
credit agency blaming policy elite for deepening crisis
7
June, 2012
The
ratings agency Fitch delivered a strong rebuke to Europe's policy
elite tonight when it sharply downgraded Spain's creditworthiness and
moved the eurozone's fourth-biggest economy a step closer to an
international financial bailout.
Fitch
said mistakes at a European level that had allowed the debt crisis to
escalate were in part to blame for its decision to cut Spain's credit
rating by three notches to just above junk bond status.
The
move – which follows the pattern that led to Greece, Ireland and
Portugal needing help from Europe and the International Monetary Fund
– makes it harder and more expensive for Spain to borrow money on
the world's financial markets.
Fitch,
which also served notice to George Osborne that the UK faced losing
its AAA status if the double-dip recession intensified, cited the
ballooning cost of bailing out Spain's struggling banks and a
longer-than-expected slump for the downgrade from A to BBB.
"The
dramatic erosion of Spain's sovereign credit profile and ratings over
the last year in part reflects policy missteps at the European level
that, in Fitch's opinion, have aggravated the economic and financial
challenges facing Spain as it seeks to rebalance and restructure the
economy," the agency said.
"The
intensification of the eurozone crisis in the latter half of last
year pushed the region and Spain back into recession, exacerbating
concerns over sovereign and bank solvency. The absence of a credible
vision of a reformed EMU and financial 'firewall' has rendered Spain
and other so-called peripheral nations vulnerable to capital flight
and undercut their access to affordable fiscal funding."
Amid
growing fears for the health of Spanish banks that lent aggressively
to fund the country's property bubble, Fitch said it believed the
recapitalisation of the struggling financial sector would be €60bn
(£49bn) – double its previous estimate.
"Spain
is forecast to remain in recession through the remainder of this year
and 2013, compared to Fitch's previous expectation that the economy
would benefit from a mild recovery in 2013," the agency said. It
added that Spain had been especially vulnerable to a deterioration in
Europe's debt crisis because it had a high level of foreign debt and
it suffered from a lack of investor confidence in the ability of
Madrid to get to grips with the country's budget deficit and
restructure the banks "in a timely fashion".
Fitch
said that Spain remained at risk of a further downgrade and that its
new BBB rating was based on the assumption that it would get help
from Europe to bail out its banks, although not necessarily the sort
of strings-attached package required by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Meanwhile,
Ed Parker, a sovereign ratings analyst, said Fitch would "expect"
to cut the UK rating if there was a "further material downturn"
in the UK economy. His comments came as the Bank of England left
policy unchanged at the monthly meeting of its monetary policy
committee and the regular snapshot of services came in more strongly
than the City had been expecting.
Although
some analysts had been expecting Threadneedle Street to respond to
the deepening crisis in the eurozone with steps to shore up flagging
UK growth, the MPC left the cost of borrowing on hold at 0.5% and did
not add to the £325bn of asset purchases that have boosted the money
supply over the past three years.
Analysts
said the "stickiness" of inflation – which remains a
percentage point above the government's 2% target – and the
relative resilience of the service sector were likely to have been
factors behind the Bank's decision to sit tight this month.
Over
the past few weeks, MPC members have been playing down the prospect
of further stimulus unless an escalation of the euro crisis worsens
Britain's economic prospects, with only one member backing more
quantitative easing at the May meeting.
Economists
said today's decision was likely to have been a closer-run affair and
expected more QE over the coming months. Lee Hopley, chief economist
at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, said: "The decision to
hold steady on policy was largely expected but, with a range of
indicators for the UK economy on the slide, this is likely to be a
wait-and-see position. The risks to growth seem to be building and
another expansion in asset purchases may be called on ."
The
Purchasing Managers' Index from the Chartered Institute for
Purchasing and Supply/Markit remained unchanged at 53.3 for last
month – safely above the 50 mark that separates expansion from
contraction. The strong showing contrasted with a sharp drop in
confidence among manufacturers. However, analysts said that with
construction also weak, there was little sign that the recession-hit
UK was bouncing back strongly.
"It's
hard to get away from the fact that the UK economy remains relatively
fragile," said Paul Smith, economist at Markit. He added that
transport and communications firms had seen strong output, whereas
financial services – heavily exposed to the turmoil in the eurozone
– had stagnated.
Howard
Archer of consultancy IHS Global Insight said: "Given the
dominant role of the services sector in the economy, the steady
growth in May reported by the purchasing managers is welcome news and
supports hopes that it can avoid further contraction in the second
quarter."
He
added that the latest British Retail Consortium survey had suggested
that May was a better month than rain-soaked April.
The
Bank conceded in its last quarterly inflation report that inflation
was likely to stay higher, for longer, than it had thought. But the
PMI survey also showed that costs in the services sector were rising
at the slowest pace since 2009, suggesting that inflationary
pressures may be easing.
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