{"id":603113,"date":"2026-08-24T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603113\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:52:09","slug":"moodys-lifts-irelands-sovereign-rating-to-aa2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603113\/","title":{"rendered":"Moody&#8217;s lifts Ireland&#8217;s sovereign rating to &#8216;Aa2&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Treasury Management Agency has welcomed credit ratings agency Moody&#8217;s upgrade of Ireland&#8217;s long-term sovereign credit rating.<\/p>\n<p>This marks the first upgrade of Ireland&#8217;s rating from Moody&#8217;s since April 2023 and is the first time that Moody&#8217;s has rated Ireland at Aa2 since 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s on Friday upgraded Ireland&#8217;s sovereign credit rating to &#8220;Aa2&#8221; from &#8220;Aa3&#8221; and reiterated its positive outlook, saying it expects improvements in the country&#8217;s economic and fiscal strength to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Aa2 is Moody\u2019s third-highest rating, after AAA and Aa1.<\/p>\n<p>The ratings agency said its assessment was supported by Ireland&#8217;s strong institutional framework, effective policymaking and resilience to recent changes in US trade and tax policies.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign direct investment in the country was delivering stronger and more lasting economic and fiscal benefits than previously assessed, it added.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s said underlying growth remained strong, with public investment under Ireland&#8217;s National Development Plan expected to help ease constraints in areas such as housing and essential infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland had reduced its debt burden more rapidly in recent years than Moody&#8217;s had expected, the ratings agency said, adding that it expects the trend to continue, supported by resilient government revenues and prudent fiscal management.<\/p>\n<p>However, the country remains vulnerable to external shocks, especially changes in US trade, tax and industrial policies, the ratings agency warned, but added that the Government&#8217;s high policy effectiveness should help cushion their impact. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Graph of Ireland's credit ratings\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024e394-614.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dave McEvoy, Director of Funding and Debt Management at the NTMA, said the upgrade from Moody\u2019s returns Ireland to the Aa2 rating for the first time since 2010.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This upgrade is underpinned by a range of factors, including further improvements in Ireland;s debt metrics. It also reflects positive international investor sentiment, as evidenced by the continued strong demand for Ireland\u2019s debt,&#8221; Mr McEvoy said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With \u20ac9.5 billion of benchmark bonds issued so far this year, from a total funding range of \u20ac10 to \u20ac14 billion, we are well positioned heading into the final months of the year,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Treasury Management Agency has welcomed credit ratings agency Moody&#8217;s upgrade of Ireland&#8217;s long-term sovereign credit rating.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-603113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603113","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=603113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}