China GDP grows 9.9% Q4, Credit rating raised.
Pattern with US, Japan, China growth ?
China's Rating Raised by S&P as GDP Growth Picks Up (Update3)
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- China's foreign-currency debt rating was raised one level by Standard & Poor's, which cited faster economic growth and rising foreign-exchange reserves.
The nation's rating was raised to BBB+ -- two levels above the lowest investment grade -- and the outlook is positive, indicating it may be lifted again, S&P said in a statement. The move puts China's rating on a par with Poland and Latvia, countries that will join the European Union in three months time.
The upgrade may make it cheaper for companies including China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Huaneng Power International Inc. to finance equipment imports as they expand in the world's fastest-growing major economy. It's also a vote of confidence in the 11-month-old government of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
``The star is China,'' said Richard Elman, chief executive of Hong Kong-based commodities trader Noble Group Ltd., which today reported earnings doubled last year. ``The government is doing everything it can to make sure that continues.''
China's economy, the world's sixth-largest, grew 9.9 percent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, accelerating from a 9.6 percent pace in the previous three months, as investment surged. The nation's foreign-exchange reserves, second only to Japan's, climbed $117 billion last year -- their biggest- ever annual gain -- to a record $403 billion.
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Can this reduce borrowing costs for property companies ? |
