BUDAPEST: Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings has raised its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Hungary to ‘BBB-/A-3’ from ‘BB+/B’. It has also raised its ratings on the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BB+’. The outlook on both Hungary and MNB is stable, S&P announced late on Friday. Hungary remains in junk grade only at Moody’s, as regards the three key credit rating agencies, but a rating review is scheduled at Moody’s for 4 November therefore the country would be back in IG at all three of them after five years if Moody’s decided to upgrade.
The upgrade was unexpected particularly because S&P is the most sensitive of the three main rating agencies to the so-called “soft factors”, such as the predictability of economic policy or the quality of the business environment. For these it is more difficult to find comparable quantitative data than for economic growth, the budget deficit or public debt.
