U.K. AAA Rating Will Avoid S&P-Style Downgrade, Citigroup Says

Britain’s top credit rating is “secure for now” and the country should avoid the fate of the euro area, where nine member states were downgraded by Standard & Poor’s last week, Citigroup Inc. said.

“To be sure, the U.K. suffers from some of the adverse factors cited by S&P to justify the euro-area downgrades,” London-based Citigroup analysts Michael Saunders and Mark Schofield said in a note to clients today. “Nevertheless, in other respects, we think the U.K.’s ability to return to fiscal sustainability is significantly better than most” euro-region governments.