The second round of Greece’s credit rating reports by international agencies for this year continues, with S&P expected to publish its verdict late on Friday, followed by Scope Ratings on November 7 and Fitch on November 14.
Although, as rating agencies’ analysts have noted to Kathimerini, the story of Greece’s successive upgrades, which began seven years ago and have accelerated since 2020, is now over and further upgrades will be slow, some agencies have room to align with the rest.
They include Fitch and Moody’s, which rate Greece at low investment grade and one notch below the BBB given by S&P, DBRS and Scope. With Fitch being the only one giving a positive outlook (all other agencies have the country as stable), the chances of it being the next agency to give an upgrade are high. Moreover, in its new analysis of Greece, it highlights the positive developments recorded in the Greek economy.
As for S&P, given that it has upgraded Greece already this year to BBB with a stable outlook, due to the “unwavering fiscal discipline,” the chances of a new upgrade so soon are limited. The first step will be to upgrade the country’s outlook to positive. As Samuel Tilleray, S&P’s chief analyst for Greece, has told Kathimerini, further upgrades are not ruled out, but would require greater progress in improving Greece’s vulnerabilities. The analyst has highlighted the high and prolonged current account deficit, which indicates a more exposed external position, due to high dependence on imports, as well as the still high level of external debt, a large part of which is public.
As Citigroup bond market analyst Aman Bansal seconds, the arguments for further upgrades remain strong, thanks to strong growth and the overperformance of fiscal targets, plus the fact Greece is relatively protected from the impact of tariffs.
The very positive messages Fitch sends in its new analysis for Greece are based on the above, building expectations for an upgrade next month. After all, almost two years have passed since its previous upgrade (December 2023).
Fitch highlights Greece’s very good fiscal path, expecting primary surpluses of 2.5% of GDP in the 2025-2027 period, with small overall budget surpluses.