According to Guernsey Finance, the AA+ grade remains unchanged since Standard & Poor’s last report on the island and is the highest that a jurisdiction such as Guernsey, without its own currency, can achieve under the agency’s ratings methodology.
Earlier this year, in May, a spokesman for Guernsey Finance told International Adviser that because Guernsey had never borrowed money externally, it did not have a credit rating and did not pay for a ratings agency, unlike Jersey and the Isle of Man.
In that same month, Isle of Man Government chief minister Allan Bell defended its decision to stop funding a Standard & Poor’s rating for the island, while continuing to pay for one with Moody’s.
Gavin St Pier, Guernsey’s treasury and resources minister, said the new rating reflected Guernsey’s financial and economic stability.
“What is particularly welcome is the report’s acknowledgement of the Island’s prudent fiscal policies and strong track record of effective, stable and transparent policy making, together with its assessment of our stable outlook for the future.”
A spokesman for Guernsey Finance added that it had a credit rating previously when the Government was looking at borrowing “but that rating was not renewed when it was decided not to borrow in the end”.
However, the Government had since decided to get a new credit rating as it was now planning to do some “strictly limited” borrowing by issuing a bond to consolidate existing public sector debt.
In February, Standard & Poors had cut the Isle of Man’s credit rating from AA+ to AA citing concerns that the international crackdown on offshore tax havens might impact on the island’s financial services industry.
In May, Jersey’s only ratings agency S&P affirmed a AA+ credit rating, first assigned in November 2013 in order that the Jersey States was able to proceed with the borrowing proposed in its 2014 Budget for £250m investment in housing over the subsequent 10 years.
