Government & Fiscal
Sovereign credit rating
A sovereign credit rating is an agency's (S&P, Moody's, Fitch) assessment of a national government's ability and willingness to repay its debt, expressed on a letter scale from AAA (or Aaa) down through default grades. A downgrade from AA to A typically raises the government's borrowing costs on new debt issuance.
Why it matters
Ratings actions are a fast-moving signal worth reading alongside debt-to-GDP and budget-balance trends on this platform.
Also known as: credit rating, sovereign rating