Prominent rating agency Moody's Investors Service reconfirmed B.C.'s Aaa-grade credit rating. B.C. and Alberta are the only two provinces that share that rating, which is Moody's highest.
The move is reassuring, given that it comes four months after the agency downgraded B.C.'s financial outlook, lowering the province's debt rating from stable to negative.
On April 4, however, Moody's noted that B.C.'s debt burden remains manageable, considering its credit strengths and high debt affordability in the current low-interest-rate environment.
The rating affirmation comes after the BC Liberal government tabled a budget and fiscal plan in February that forecast a deficit of $1.2 billion to come in the 2012-13 fiscal year and budget surpluses in all three years of the 2013-16 fiscal plan for a total of $868 million by 2016.
The rating also comes on the day that the opposition NDP accused the Liberals of tabling a budget that is deliberately designed to hide a $780 million deficit in the 2013-14 fiscal year by instead forecasting a $200 million surplus.
