ATHENS, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Standard & Poor's has upgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating back to investment level after 13 years, a move welcomed by the Greek government.
The rating agency announced on Friday that it has raised the Greek rating to "BBB-", from "BB+", with a stable outlook, explaining that "significant budgetary consolidation has placed Greece's fiscal trajectory onto a firmly improving track."
It also said it anticipates the Greek budget to end the year with a primary surplus of 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to a government target of 0.7 percent of GDP. It also forecasts growth to amount to 2.5 percent this year.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had said after he was reelected to the post on June 25 that one of his government's main objectives was the restoration of Greece's investment grade.
The upgrade to investment level by S&P is "another official seal of the recovery of the Greek economy," he commented on social media on Saturday.
The upgrade confirms that Greece has left behind a severe crisis moving consistently forward to development, he added.
This upgrading of Greece makes S&P the second rating agency among the four that the European Central Bank consults before accepting a country's sovereign bonds as collateral for lending to commercial banks. Six weeks earlier Canada-based DBRS Morningstar had also granted Greece investment grade.
Other rating agencies such as Scope Ratings and R&I have raised Greece to investment level, too.
