Australian Treasurer Hockey: No suggestion of downgrade risk to Australia's AAA rating

Comments from Australian Treasurer Hockey:

• No suggestion of downgrade risk to Australia's AAA rating

Hockey responding to Goldman Sachs opinion on a potential downgrade that had been market chatter this week

More via Reuters:

• Hockey said he was confident the economy would extend a run of annual growth that dates bac kto 1991
• Was dismissive of talk that the sovereign debt rating was in danger
• "There is no suggestion of a risk. None. None. We're not even on negative credit watch"
• "I don't see off-the-cuff commentary from one investment bank as any reliable indicator of where our credit rating is heading."

Goldman Sachs this week warned the rating could come under threat within months because of a change to the way Standard & Poor's assessed sovereign risk, combined with the outlook for years of budget deficits. A spokesman for S&P told Reuters that Australia had not been affected by the change in rating methodology and the agency hadnot warned of any impending change to the triple-A outlook