Economics
African Review Panel Slams Ratings Firms For Covid-19 Downgrades
- Rating cuts made it more difficult to respond to virus: report
- Investors raised cost of borrowing, withdrew their capital
Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg
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An African Union review panel criticized credit ratings companies for aggressive downgrades of countries on the continent during the coronavirus pandemic.
The African Peer Review Mechanism -- an entity of the AU -- in collaboration with the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, launched its first Sovereign Credit Rating Review Report on Thursday. It showed 11 countries were downgraded in the first half of 2020 and 12 had their outlooks changed to negative, meaning their assessments were at risk of being cut.