S&P says will lower Latin America growth forecast

Published: 29 Mar 2009 17:44:48 PST

MEDELLIN, Colombia, March 28 - The global economic crisis is pushing Standard & Poor's to revise down its growth estimates for Latin America, however the impact on sovereign ratings is limited, the firm said on Saturday.

"So far the impact on sovereign ratings has been very little ... because we don't look only at the numbers and we try not to be cyclical. We try to look through the cycle," said Joydeep Mukherji, sovereign credit analyst at Standard & Poor's.

"If this deterioration gets worse or more negative surprises, the way Lehman Brothers was in the U.S., that could certainly have an impact on the ratings," he said.

The credit rating agency issued a growth estimate of 0.7 percent for 2009 on March 2, however within the span of less than a month those figures have deteriorated.

Mukherji said the region will still grow, but between zero and 0.7 percent in 2009.