{"id":104261,"date":"2017-05-26T22:53:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T02:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=104261"},"modified":"2017-05-26T22:53:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T02:53:55","slug":"alberta-sees-another-credit-rating-downgrade-on-rising-debt-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/26\/alberta-sees-another-credit-rating-downgrade-on-rising-debt-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta sees another credit rating downgrade on rising debt levels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alberta's<\/a>
Alberta’s credit rating has once again been knocked down over concerns of rising debt levels and unbalanced budgets.(Photo: Bernard Spragg. NZ\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON \u2014 Alberta’s credit rating has once again been knocked down over concerns of rising debt levels and unbalanced budgets.<\/p>\n

S&P Global Ratings says it has reduced the province’s rating two notches from AA to A+ on its expectation of continued high deficits in the next two years as Alberta tries to stimulate the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur assessment of the province’s budgetary performance … has significantly deteriorated and is materially weaker compared with that of both domestic and international peers,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

S&P criticized the province for not introducing any material measures of fiscal restraint in the spring budget, and instead waiting for oil prices to recover to bolster its finances.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Joe Ceci said that the NDP government made a choice to keep spending to foster growth, rather than to make budget cuts to please bond raters.<\/p>\n

He said efforts are starting to pay off. Alberta’s economy is expected to grow 2.6 per cent this year, the highest rate in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad we made deep cuts that might have satisfied some bond raters, it would have resulted in a much deeper and longer recession,\u201d said Ceci.<\/p>\n

He also rejected S&P’s suggestion that the province could raise taxes to improve its fiscal position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not raise taxes or make reckless spending cuts in the billions of dollars when our economy is just beginning to recover,\u201d said Ceci.<\/p>\n

Wildrose leader Brian Jean said it was the government’s \u201creckless spending\u201d that led to another downgrade and that will lead to higher debt-servicing costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s credit downgrade is yet another example of how much damage the NDP is inflicting with its disastrous budgets and policies at a time we can least afford it,\u201d said Jean in a statement.<\/p>\n

S&P expects Alberta to borrow more than $55 billion between fiscal 2018 and 2020, bringing total tax-supported debt to $94 billion by the end of fiscal 2020.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 Alberta’s credit rating has once again been knocked down over concerns of rising debt levels and unbalanced budgets. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":94059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16],"tags":[19592],"class_list":["post-104261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-sp-global","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}