Standard & Poor lower Ireland's credit rating

In unwelcome news that was not entirely unexpected, Moody's credit agency has downgraded Ireland's credit rating.

In doing so, the country has lost its last AAA rating, and is now rated as an Aa1.

The well-documented real estate collapse and lack of competitive edge has turned the Irish economy on its head. The high levels of spending and wages in the country will not help redress the situation and further cuts must be made, warned the credit agency.

However, the New York-based agency did say that the healthy state of the economy before the downward spiral and the rapid policy changes the government has implemented has softened the blow of the collapse, and only meant a small downgrade was needed at this time.
 
"A meaningful fiscal adjustment will require an additional structural improvement of Ireland's primary budget balance," Dietmar Hornung, Moody's senior analyst told Reuters
 
"But at this juncture I don't see imminent issues that would force us to change the rating in the short term."
 
This development did not come as too much of a shock after the country’s credit rating was lowered by Standard & Poor (see link above). Fitch, the other credit agency has also cut Ireland's credit rating by one notch.