The loss of the United States’ AAA credit rating is unlikely to affect the Russian market, a senior Moscow lawmaker said on Saturday.
Leading credit rating agency Standard Poor’s moved America from the top-notch AAA to AA-plus on Friday night, amid concerns over its debt. Analysts warn the move could dent investors’ confidence in the world’s largest economy raise the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government.
“I don’t think this will have any consequences for us. Ratings agencies have lost their authority in the past 3-4 years,” Pavel Medvedev, member of the Russian lower house of parliament’s financial markets committee, told RIA Novosti.
“Any rating is, in fact, a sort of prediction, which can or cannot come true,” he said.
In a statement, SP said last-minute legislation passed in Congress earlier this week to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avert a financial default does not go far enough to stabilize the country’s debt situation.
The Obama administration reacted with anger, saying that the New York-based firm’s sums were “deeply flawed.” A U.S. Treasure Department spokesman said there was a $2 trillion error in the agency’s analysis.
But the company said Washington fell short “of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”
The SP announcement came after a calamitous five days in global stock markets, as concerns continued over the eurozone debt crisis and weakening U.S. economy.