Australia’s AAA rating safe for now, says Moody’s
Credit rating agency Moody’s said today it saw no reason to downgrade Australia’s prized AAA rating, despite tumbling commodity prices that have led to miners scrapping jobs in the country.
Iron ore and coal prices have fallen over the past few weeks, prompting fears that Australia’s mining boom may be coming to an end. The metals are Australia’s two largest exports.
Earlier this week Xstrata and BHP Billiton announced they were slashing mining jobs in the country.
Australia’s net debt is expected to be 9.2 per cent of GDP in 2012/13, which is a fraction of that in Europe.