Standard & Poor's knocked down America's credit rating earlier in August this year and almost immediately the world's biggest economy courted the possibility of another recession, a scenario that Australia had apparently encountered in early 2009.

According to newly exposed cables posted by WikiLeaks, leading Australian business executives had expressed fears that a crippling credit downgrade was about to descend upon the local economy, with an indication coming from S&P on 2008 that the slip was possible considering the economic stall prevalent at that time.

The cables revealed that Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chief executive Ralph Norris and Rio Tinto board member Rod Eddington both met with then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on April 2009 and advised him that the prospect of the country losing its AAA credit rating would highly disturb its economic stability.

As Australia largely utilise offshore funding to fuel a big chunk of its economic activity, Norris reportedly felt then that a credit downgrade at the height of the global financial crisis would send negative "ripple through the real economy," as reported on Friday by BusinessDay.

It turned though that the Australian economy sailed through the rough times of the GFC and the country kept it AAA sovereign badge, which experts said was mostly due to its steady shipment of commodities and anchored on its trade partnerships with India, Japan and China.

Also, both Norris and Eddington credited Mr Rudd's policy of introducing federal stimulus packages that filled the any gap on local economic activities, with the leaked document revealing that the two executives expressed gratitude to the United States "for our collective ability to learn from our mistakes and quickly move on."

BusinessDay said that CBA has confirmed the scenarios described in the cables furnished by WikiLeaks but a bank representative clarified that the documents mostly delved in presenting an analysis and brief of the meeting between Mr Rudd and the business executives.

Analysts said that much of Australia's good standing during the GFC period should be attributed to its sound financial policies already in place during the height of the economic turbulence though another leaked cable showed that some tweaks were required to assure that the country's financial sector will not run into any serious problems.

That separate document described a meeting on June 2009 between Australian bank regulators and US officials and discussed some suggested regulatory adjustments that would ensure the country's banking industry would be able to keep up with emerging global trends.

Overall, the document also highlighted the healthy state of Australian banks, which the assessment stressed were able to survive the GFC with flying colours and were in fact gearing for expansion plans abroad.