Sovereign creditworthiness is interpreted and reassessed through several overlapping evaluations.
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There have been notable examples of rating agencies differing significantly in their decisions on African institutions and countries.
Rating agencies shape the policy space for pursuing development goals. Yet they remain private firms, operating under commercial incentives.
Tensions over the role that credit rating agencies play in assessing African countries have broken into the open.
The problem with rating models applied to African countries is that they use a narrow definition of risk and don’t take into account qualitative factors.
A successful African rating agency would shift power in global finance.
Moody’s acquisitions are a setback for the development of alternative rating agencies to compete against the monopoly of the ‘big three’.
African countries need to find a way to present a common front to the rating agencies.
Credit ratings have an impact on government, as well as ordinary people. This article was first published last year as South Africa faced a possible downgrade.
The credit-ratings agencies are already circling to cut the UK’s grade if it votes to leave the EU. Here’s how their calculations work, and what we should do about it.
