NZ is AA+: S&P lifts rating for first time in nearly 10 years

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says the NZ economy has bounced back because the government did not waste any time as it saw the pandemic taking hold.

Rebecca Howard

Mon, 22 Feb 2021

S&P Global Ratings upgraded NZ’s ratings for the first time in nearly a decade as covid-19 risk moderates. Shortly after the announcement, the kiwi dollar rose. This comes as the global ratings agency raised its foreign currency sovereign ratings to AA+ from AA, and its local currency sovereign ratings to AAA from AA+. The outlook is stable.The move marks the first change to New Zealand’s rating since September 2011. It is also the first rating upgrade it has done on any sovereign globally since the pandemic.“We have...

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