-Outlook On UK ‘AAA’ Rating Lowered To Negative

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s Thursday warned that it
could slash the ratings on the United Kingdom if the country’s fiscal
performance were to weaken beyond the firms current expectations.

“Future employment or growth shocks could pressure government finances
further,” S&P said. “We are therefore revising our outlook on the unsolicited
long-term ratings on the U.K. to negative, from stable, reflecting our view of a
one-in-three chance that we could lower the ratings if the U.K.’s economic and
fiscal performances weaken beyond our current expectations.”

The following is the full text of the S&P statement:

On Dec. 13, 2012, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on
the unsolicited long-term ratings on the United Kingdom to negative from stable.
At the same time, we affirmed our ‘AAA/A-1+’ long- and short-term unsolicited
sovereign credit ratings. The transfer & convertibility (T&C) assessment on the
U.K. remains ‘AAA’.

We have also revised to negative from stable our outlooks on the ‘AAA’
long-term issuer credit ratings of the Bank of England and the debt program of
Network Rail Infrastructure Finance PLC.

Rationale

The outlook revision reflects our view that we could lower the ratings on
the U.K. within the next two years if fiscal performance weakens beyond our
current expectations. We believe this could occur in particular as a result of a
delayed and uneven economic recovery, or a weakening of political commitment to
consolidation. We expect economic growth to rise slowly in the medium term, with
net general government debt as a percentage of GDP continuing to rise in 2015,
instead of stabilizing in 2014 as previously expected. If economic growth
recovers more slowly than we currently forecast–due to domestic factors or
waning economic performance by the U.K.’s main trading partners–such slow
recovery could result in net general government debt approaching 100% of GDP, by
our calculations, from its current estimated level of 85% of GDP in 2012.

In our opinion, many of the factors that have restrained growth in recent
years will likely continue to do so in the near term. We continue to believe the
government’s efforts over the next few years to engineer the planned correction
in the U.K.’s fiscal accounts will likely drag on economic growth, although we
note that the expected pace of consolidation is to ease in the short term.

We also believe that household spending will be restrained by sluggish
nominal wage growth, a becalmed housing market, and a high, albeit falling,
private-sector debt burden. With weak private-sector domestic demand, corporate
investment is likely to recover only as the external environment improves (the
eurozone accounts for nearly half of the U.K.’s overall trade).

An associated risk is that if economic growth fails to revive, companies
may respond by cutting jobs at a time when the public sector is also
retrenching. Job cuts would likely further constrain household spending, which
contributes roughly two-thirds to GDP, with knock-on effects on economic growth
and government finances. We note that the labor market has so far held up better
than in previous recessions, which has supported social welfare contributions,
and maintained personal income tax receipts. All things considered, we expect
real per capita GDP growth to average just over 1% per year in 2013-2015, after
a 0.8% contraction in 2012 (we expect real GDP growth to average 1.6% in
2013-2015, following a contraction of 0.3% in 2012).

U.K. banks are currently focused on building capital buffers, generally by
their shedding relatively risky assets and constraining new lending. This
deleveraging will continue to create headwinds for the economy, in our view. The
authorities are taking measures to support and stimulate credit growth, but we
do not expect these steps will have a significant impact. Nevertheless, we note
that the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) highly accommodative policy stance should
help to keep private-sector debt-servicing costs moderate, keep the currency at
competitive levels, and provide a cushion in the event of further volatility in
the international capital markets.

The government’s self-imposed fiscal mandate is to balance the
cyclically-adjusted current budget (which excludes the cyclical deficit and
investment spending) by the end of a rolling five-year time horizon, currently
fiscal-year 2017/2018 (ending March 31, 2018). The Office for Budgetary
Responsibility (OBR) anticipates that the government remains on course to meet
this fiscal mandate. A supplementary target is to have public-sector net debt as
a percentage of GDP falling by fiscal 2015/2016, but the OBR now expects this
target to be missed by one year. Performance in the current fiscal year has been
affected by weaker economic growth than the OBR had predicted in March 2012,
with the result that tax receipts have stagnated. That said, we note that
government expenditure performance between April and October 2012 has been just
below target, and that the OBR expects spending to be lower than it originally
forecast in March.

We forecast a general government deficit of 4.6% of GDP in calendar year
2015, using the accruals-based European (ESA 95) accounting standard, compared
with the OBR’s 4.2% projection for fiscal year 2015/2016. Our higher deficit
estimates are largely based on our view that economic growth will likely be
lower than that forecast by the OBR. We anticipate the general government net
debt burden will peak in 2015, at just over 92% of GDP on an ESA 95 basis,
before stabilizing and then gradually declining. This level is similar to our
July forecast because of the transfer of the Asset Purchase Facility’s (the
BoE’s quantitative easing facility) excess cash from the BoE to the Exchequer,
which will help reduce debt levels in the short term.

We believe that the U.K. ratings will continue to be supported by what we
view as its wealthy and diversified economy, reserve currency advantages, fiscal
and monetary policy flexibility, and adaptable product and labor markets. In our
opinion, the U.K. government maintains a strong commitment to implementing its
fiscal mandate, and has the ability and willingness to respond rapidly to
economic challenges. We also view the U.K. as having deep capital markets with
strong demand for long-dated gilts by resident and nonresident institutional
investors alike. These markets, along with the U.K.’s good inflation record,
proven countercyclical monetary policy flexibility, and floating exchange rate
regime, provide more economic policy flexibility than typically exists in the
U.K.’s eurozone peers.

Outlook

The negative outlook reflects our view of a one-in-three chance that we
could lower the ratings in the next two years if the U.K.’s economic and fiscal
performances weaken beyond our current expectations. We expect economic growth
to accelerate slowly, but the risks to our growth assumptions are weighted to
the downside, however, with associated risks to government finances. This weaker
growth scenario could result in net general government debt approaching 100% of
GDP, by our calculations, from its estimated current level of 85% of GDP.

We could lower the ratings if we conclude that the pace and extent of
fiscal consolidation has slowed beyond what we currently expect. This could stem
from a reappraisal of our view of the government’s willingness and ability to
implement its ambitious fiscal strategy.

The ratings could stabilize at the current level if the economy recovers
more quickly and strongly than we currently anticipate, enabling net general
government debt as a percentage of GDP to stabilize in 2014-2015.

–MNI Washington Bureau; tel: +1 202-371-2121; email: besene@mni-news.com

[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$E$$$,MR$$$$,MFB$$$,MGB$$$]