Moody’s slashes Hong Kong’s rating to ‘Aa3’ as pro-democracy protest drags on

• Financial

On Monday, the 20th of January 2020, the NY-based American credit rating agency Moody’s, widely contemplated as one of the top three credit rating agencies alongside Fitch’s and S&P, had slashed the Central Asia’s largest Economic HubSpot, Hong Kong’s credit rating to “Aa3” from “Aa2,” adding the credit rating agency’s outlook on Hong Kong’s institutional governance alongside financial entities had been “lower than previously estimated”.

Nonetheless, despite a downgrading of Hong Kong’s credit rating amid non-competing narratives of further downfall lying ahead, the US-based credit rating agency had shifted Hong Kong’s outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative.’ In point of fact, following a havoc-scale chaos in the China-controlled island city of Hong Kong, investments had hit a rock-bottom and people were found moving their assets either in to the Mainland China or Singapore, but the Hang Seng or Hong Kong’s stock exchange had reported a robust annual return earlier this month.

Amid such tumultuous economic scenario while multiple questions were raised on Hong Kong’s governance over the recent past, Moody’s said in a statement on Monday (January 20th) after downgrading Hong Kong’s credit rating, “The absence of tangible plans to address either the political or economic and social concerns of the Hong Kong population that have come to the fore in the past nine months may reflect weaker inherent institutional capacity than Moody's had previously assessed. ”