Fitch has slashed Japan’s sovereign rating from A plus to A, judging the world’s fourth-largest economy a worse credit risk than Malta or Estonia.
The credit rating agency said it acted because the government of Shinzo Abe did not offset the lost revenue from last year’s delay in raising consumption tax.
The downgrade is unlikely to have much immediate effect — domestic confidence in Japan’s public debt has survived bigger shocks — but it highlights a steady deterioration in the country’s public finances at a time when the central bank has embarked on an unprecedented Y80tn ($670bn) a year bond-buying programme.
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