Unrest in Egypt Risks Spreading Into Algeria, Standard and Poors Forecasts

Egypt’s unrest may spread to other countries, including Algeria and Jordan, that have high unemployment and less leeway to boost public spending because of high debt and budget deficits, Standard & Poor’s said today.

The rating agency is “relatively confident” that Egypt will pay its debt obligations, Kai Stukenbrock, director for sovereign and international public finance ratings, said in an interview in Dubai today.

There is a 50 percent chance that S&P will cut Egypt’s credit rating further, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alaa Shahine in Cairo at asalha@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz discusses the protests in Egypt against President Hosni Mubarak's regime and the impact on the rest of the world. Stiglitz speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)