{"id":356830,"date":"2026-03-20T22:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/356830\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T22:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:24:08","slug":"sp-upgrades-ireland-to-within-one-notch-of-triple-a-for-first-time-since-2009-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/356830\/","title":{"rendered":"S&P upgrades Ireland to within one notch of triple-A for first time since 2009 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

S&P Global<\/a>, one of the world\u2019s largest credit ratings agencies, has upgraded its view of Ireland\u2019s creditworthiness to within one level of its top-notch AAA grade for the first time since early 2009.<\/p>\n

The firm said on Friday it had raised its stance on the Republic\u2019s long-term local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings to AA+ from AA and restored its ratings outlook to stable from positive.<\/p>\n

S&P, which now has the highest rating on Ireland of any of the leading credit agencies, had put a positive outlook on its rating in late 2024, indicating it was predisposed to an upgrade. Analysts at the firm said in January that they aimed to make a decision this year on whether to raise its stance or return the outlook to stable. <\/p>\n

The National Treasury Management Agency<\/a> (NTMA), which manages Ireland\u2019s sovereign debt, welcomed the upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first upgrade of Ireland\u2019s rating from S&P since May 2023 and is the first time that S&P has rated Ireland at AA+ since 2009,\u201d the agency said in a statement. <\/p>\n

S&P also affirmed Ireland\u2019s short-term rating at S&P\u2019s highest level of A-1+.<\/p>\n

In making its decision to upgrade, S&P cited several factors including the State\u2019s strong economic and budgetary performance, the strengthening of fiscal buffers, a continued decline in net debt.<\/p>\n

It also noted the favourable structure of Government debt, which has long average maturity and the extent to which existing borrowing is at fixed rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s S&P rating upgrade to AA+ is another positive development for Ireland,\u201d said Dave McEvoy, director of funding and debt management at the NTMA. \u201cIt reflects positive international investor sentiment and further improvements in Ireland\u2019s debt metrics, with Irish bonds now trading close to core European sovereign issuers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis upgrade follows a strong start to our 2026 funding programme,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have already issued \u20ac6.25 billion of benchmark bonds this year, from a total funding range for the year of \u20ac10 billion to \u20ac14 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s leading credit ratings firms stripped Ireland of its prized top credit ratings during the financial crisis, with S&P rival, Moody\u2019s going so far as to downgrade the Republic\u2019s creditworthiness to \u201cjunk\u201d status in 2011.<\/p>\n

S&P rated Ireland at as low as BBB+, seven levels below AAA, but three steps above \u201cjunk\u201d, during the worst of the downturn. <\/p>\n

The State has enjoyed a slew of upgrades over the past dozen years, after emerging from an international bailout programme and rapidly lowering its debt burden \u2013 relative to the size of the economy \u2013 as annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth routinely topped the list of EU members.<\/p>\n

Two of the world\u2019s three main credit ratings agencies \u2013 Fitch and Morningstar DBRS \u2013 currently have an AA stance on Ireland. The rating of Moody\u2019s is AA3, the equivalent of one level lower than its peers. <\/p>\n

Credit ratings firms\u2019 actions should theoretically influence borrowing costs for governments and companies, although financial markets are often ahead of the game when it comes to pricing debt.<\/p>\n

Irish GDP surged by 12.3 per cent in 2025, the Central Statistics Office<\/a> said earlier this month, driven a surge of exports in the first quarter. A 23.5 per cent jump in exports was known to be turbocharged by companies seeking to get ahead of expected Trump administration tariffs and, in particular, by US drugmaker Eli Lilly<\/a> shipping ingredients for a weight-loss and diabetes treatments from Cork. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S&P Global, one of the world\u2019s largest credit ratings agencies, has upgraded its view of Ireland\u2019s creditworthiness to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5168,14787,12250,1523,61,60,80344,43,35477],"class_list":["post-356830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-budget","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-eli-lilly","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-treasury-management-agency","tag-news","tag-standard-poor-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}