Moody's cut Greece's rating to the lowest possible level

PanARMENIAN.Net - Moody's Investors Service on Friday, March 2, cut Greece's sovereign debt rating to the lowest possible level after a debt-restructuring deal that imposes hefty economic losses for private creditors.

According to Reuters, Moody's lowered Greece's local and foreign-currency bond ratings a notch to C from Ca, becoming the third credit rating agency to downgrade the country following the announcement of the swap deal to lighten its debt burden.

Moody's says that bonds rated C "are the lowest rated class and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest." The rating agency added that it did not assign any future outlook.

"The announced debt exchange proposal," the credit rating agency said in a statement, "implies that private creditors that participate will incur substantial economic losses on their holdings of the Greek government debt."

On Monday, Standard & Poor's cut Greece's long-term ratings to "selective default," the second ratings agency to proceed with a widely expected downgrade after the country announced the bond swap.