NZ deserves Aaa Credit Rating--Moody's Investors Service
New Zealand's low borrowings and excellent fiscal policy and monetary position have convinced Moody's Investors Service to give it the highest rating of Aaa credit rating.
In spite the relative slow pace of economic growth of New Zealand, Moody's saw it fitting to obtain a stable outlook for its fiscal prudence to be instituted in the near and medium term.
Moody's said today in a report that though New Zealand may opt to go to the credit market until 2015, this is still "within the range compatible to New Zealand's rating."
The report indicated that the pitfall for New Zealand would be its foreign investment position now equivalent to almost a 100 percent to its gross domestic product, which according to Moody's, is one of the highest among developed nations.
Vulnerability
Moody's classified NZ's vulnerability to natural disasters most specifically that of earthquakes. However, it cited the reliability demonstrated by the country's insurer during the Sept. 4 tremors. Thus, the New Zealand government was only forced to shell out an emergency fund to help those affected and for rehabilitation of destroyed roads and other forms of infrastructure.
New Zealand's economic growth is seen to be moderate and the trade deficit slowing down to a more tempered figure by year-end.
In the second quarter, the economy recorded a 0.2 percent, according to reports from the NZ Bureau of Statistics released this month.
Finance Minister Bill English said last week though the hard times is yet to be over, the road to recovery is on track, though with a bit of a "bumpy ride."