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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (64100)	5/31/2002 3:35:20 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Japan Debt Rating Cut Two Notches to `A2' by Moody's (Update1) By Ann Saphir quote.bloomberg.com Tokyo, May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's credit rating was cut two notches by Moody's Investors Service, which said the government's economic policies won't stem the rising national debt. Moody's said the cut to a sixth-ranking ``A2'' rating on yen- denominated bonds -- the same as Cyprus and Kuwait -- assumes that Japan's debt will continue to grow. It changed the outlook to ``stable'' from ``negative,'' suggesting the rating won't be cut again soon. The action puts more pressure on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to deal with the nation's ballooning debt, which is forecast to rise to 693 trillion yen ($5.2 trillion) by March next year, equal to 140 percent of gross domestic product, according to Ministry of Finance estimates. That's the biggest debt load among the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. ``Japan is just left with one choice -- speed up structural reforms,'' said Tomoko Fujii, a senior economist at Nikko Salomon Smith Barney Ltd.