Moody's cuts Thailand rating outlook to negative

HONG KONG, Dec 4 - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said it had lowered its ratings outlook on Thailand, which has been rocked by a political crisis that saw protesters shut down the capital's two main airports, to negative.

The rating action on the country's Baa1 foreign- and local currency government ratings to negative from stable was prompted by the damage that ongoing political uncertainty was having on the country's economy, which Moody's said could undermine the government's creditworthiness if it continued.

"The inability of the country's judicial and executive branches to prevent civil disobedience from causing major dislocations, not only with regard to the occupation of Government House, but also the airport seizures of the past week in Bangkok, suggest that Thailand's institutional strengths have become compromised," Tom Byrne, a Moody's Senior Vice President based in Singapore, said in a statement. (Reporting by Tony Munroe; editing by Anne Marie Roantree)