BUDGET 2013 Rating agencies happy with NZ fiscal position after budget

BUDGET 2013 Rating agencies happy with NZ fiscal position after budget
May 16 (BusinessDesk) - The major international rating agencies have given Finance Minister Bill English the all-clear in today’s budget, which sticks to reaching an operational surplus in the 2014/15 year. Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s all said their respective sovereign ratings for New Zealand were unaffected by English’s fifth budget, and were generally in line with expectations. The latest Treasury forecasts are for a margin-of-error operating surplus before gains and losses of $75 million in 2014-2015,...