Treasury Minister Anne Craine MHK has today (Friday, November 12) welcomed the announcement from Moody’s Investor Services that the Isle of Man has retained its “AAA” Credit Rating. This comes just a couple of weeks after the rating was also confirmed by Standard and Poors.
The Minister noted that both organisations had undertaken a thorough review of the Island’s financial position, and its response to recent fiscal challenges.
Moody’s had placed the Isle of Man on review for possible downgrade in October 2009, but has now announced that its opinion has been revised as a result of “the positive response of the government in meeting up to 25% cuts in the Isle’s governmental revenues, caused by the revised VAT sharing agreement with the UK”.
Mrs Craine further noted that Standard and Poors is confident that the Isle of Man “would move back into surplus by 2013, based on prudent financial policies and strong economic performance”.
The Minister concluded: “As we finalise plans for the 2011 Budget, it is pleasing to see that the plans set out by my predecessor have been externally validated. We are building on those, and I hope to grow income and reduce expenditure further next year to ensure that we return to a balanced budget within the timescales we have set for ourselves”.
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Friday 12th, November 2010 12:26pm.
