S&P affirms Israel

Standard & Poor's said it affirmed the long- and short-term foreign-currency sovereign credit ratings on the State of Israel at A+/A-1, along with the local-currency ratings at AA-/A-1+.

The outlook is stable.

The transfer and convertibility assessment remains at AA.

On Oct. 9, the Israeli government announced early elections to be held Jan. 22, 2013 because of a failure by officials to agree on a budget. The budget dispute occurred after the most contentious austerity measures already were agreed upon, S&P said.

These are expected to raise government revenues by more than 1% of GDP, the agency said.

Strong polling numbers, the government's focus on foreign-policy issues and the preference for outlining specific expenditure cuts after an election apparently motivated the government to return to the ballot box, S&P said.

While this may seem reminiscent of the frequent turnover of past Israeli governments, the current government has been the longest serving for more than 20 years, the agency said.

The elections do raise uncertainties, including that the internal distribution of power within the coalition could shift or introduce a new party to the government, S&P said.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.