UK triple-A rating under fresh threat from S&P

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has followed Moody’s and Fitch in placing the UK’s AAA rating on ‘negative outlook’.

It said it had made the move to reflect a possible downgrade of the UK’s credit rating if fiscal performance weakened beyond its current expectations.

‘We believe this could occur in particular as a result of a delayed and uneven economic recovery, or a weakening of political commitment to consolidation,’ it said.

‘We expect economic growth to rise slowly in the medium term, with net general government debt as a percentage of GDP continuing to rise in 2015, instead of stabilising in 2014 as previously expected.’