S&P restores Greece to investment level

Standard & Poor’s upgraded Greece’s credit rating to “BBB-” on Friday, taking the country out of “junk status” and into investment grade for the first time after 13 years, on the country’s improved budgetary position, as it noted.

In a statement released late on Friday, the esteemed rating agency announced it has brought the Greek sovereign rating up from “BB+” and has a Stable outlook.

“Greece’s public finances are improving thanks to the budgetary consolidation efforts,” the agency observed.

“Since the debt crisis in 2009-2015, significant progress has been made in addressing Greece’s economic and fiscal imbalances. We expect additional structural economic and budgetary reforms, coupled with large EU funds, will support robust economic growth in 2023-2026 and underpin continued reduction in government debt,” S&P noted.

“We therefore raised our sovereign credit ratings on Greece to ‘BBB-/A-3’ from ‘BB+/B’. The outlook is stable,” said S&P, explaining that “the stable outlook captures balanced risks in the external environment that could affect Greece’s open economy, alongside our expectation that persistent primary budget surplus targets will continue to drive the reduction in government debt.”