India needs improvement in revenue, spending -S&P

Published: 21 Feb 2010 18:41:51 PST

TOKYO, Feb 22 - India's macro-economic conditions look better compared to a year ago, but Standard and Poor's wants to see improvements in both government revenue and expenditure, an S&P analyst said on Monday.

Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on India's long-term sovereign credit rating to negative from stable in February 2009.

At that time, S&P retained its BBB-minus long-term sovereign rating for India and its A-3 short-term rating. Both of these are the lowest rung of investment grade.

"Compared with about a year ago when we changed the outlook of India's BBB-minus ratings to negative, macro-economic conditions look better," Standard and Poor's analyst Takahira Ogawa told Dealing Room, a Reuters Messaging chatroom.

"However, we need to see the improvement of both revenue and expenditure of the government to reduce its fiscal deficits," he added.