Standard and Poor"s Upgrades Korea"s Rating

The U.S. credit rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) on November 11 raised Korea's sovereign rating to BBB from the lowest investment grade of BBB-.
S&P also upgraded its long-term foreign currency rating to A from A-.
As a consequence, the won dropped Thursday by 6.90 won to 1173.10 won against the dollar.
The rating agency said that the Korean economy is recovering so fast as to absorb the burden from the restructuring of companies, while the possibility of a further exchange crisis is extremely low due to sufficient foreign currency reserves of $67 billion.
However, S&P required further restructuring, announcing it had only upgraded the rating by one notch.
A source at the Ministry of Finance and Economy said, 'As a consequence of S&P's upgrade, its competitor Moody's is likely to similarly raise Korea's rating.'
Kang Joo-an : jooan@joongang.co.kr