UK's credit rating is downgraded

One thing that the government has said is that it is making big cutbacks to public spending so that Britain will keep its "AAA"-rating with various credit rating agencies.

Well, last night this happened:

Rating agency Egan-Jones cut the credit rating for the United Kingdom on Monday to AA-minus with a negative outlook from AA, the latest in a string of European sovereign downgrades from the agency.

"Unfortunately, we expect that the UK's debt/GDP (ratio) will continue to rise and the country will remain pressed."

We were downgraded, due to the impact of the government's economic policies. By their own standards, they've failed.*

Of course, whether it is worth being obsessed with having the highest rating is another matter entirely. According to Paul Krugman, a downgrade such as this makes little difference.

* I accept that we've not been downgraded by this lot from a AAA-rating, but the downgrading itself is what counts Tweet