Coronavirus doing almost double the debt damage as financial crash: Moody’sbusinessUpdated: Jun 22, 2020 15:00 ISTThe coronavirus will push debt levels in the world’s richest nations up by almost 20 percentage points on average this year, credit rating agency Moody’s said on Monday, almost double the damage seen during the financial crash. A new report by Moody’s looked at 14 countries from the United States and Japan to Italy and Britain and assessed how coronavirus-induced economic slowdowns would scar their finances. “We estimate that on average in this group, government debt/GDP ratios will rise by around 19 percentage points, nearly twice as much as in 2009 during the Great Financial Crisis”. A failure to bring debt levels back down would leave countries with weaker credit profiles more vulnerable to future economic or financial shocks, and sovereign credit rating downgrades, Moody’s added. “Rating implications will depend on governments’ ability to reverse debt trajectories ahead of potential future shocks,” the report said.

Source: Hindustan Times June 22, 2020 09:30 UTC