Egyptian unrest prompts Moody’s to downgrade bank ratings
Cairo, Egypt (AHN) – Political unrest in Egypt has caused international credit rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s to downgrade ratings for banks there after both agencies earlier downgraded Egypt’s sovereign debt rating.
Moody’s downgraded ratings for the National Bank of Egypt, Bank of Alexandria, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire and Commercial International Bank, while warning that it might make further cuts to ratings.
On Monday, Moody’s cut Egypt’s sovereign debt rating. S&P announced that although it was relatively confident of Egypt’s ability to repay its debt that there was also a 50 percent possibility it would further cut Egypt’s sovereign debt rating.
In addition, S&P voiced concerns that unrest might spread to Algeria and Jordan, where already high debt and deficit burdens coupled with high unemployment gave those nation’s less ability to increase public spending to deal with problems.
Moody’s said it would reassess whether it thought Egypt could support its banking system during the ongoing political unrest.
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