Mexico’s AMLO Tells Ratings Firms to Be ‘More Objective’
Mexico’s AMLO Tells Ratings Firms to Be ‘More Objective’
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ratcheted up his attacks against credit-rating companies on Friday, saying he hopes they act more objectively and noting that Mexico pays them as much as $300 million a year.
While the Mexican president promised at his regular morning news conference to respect decisions made by the firms, he called on them to be “more cautious in their analysis, more professional, more objective, that they leave their ideological leanings off to the side.”
Lopez Obrador’s clashes with ratings companies flared in June, when the peso dropped by as much as 1% after Fitch cut the nation’s credit rating and Moody’s reduced its outlook on the same day. The next day, Fitch slashed to junk bonds sold by Petroleos Mexicanos SA, the debt-burdened state oil company.
The Mexican leader didn’t name the companies, which include Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings. Spokesmen for the firms didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The firms have said Mexico’s major threats include Lopez Obrador’s own policies, pointing to an economic slowdown and the lack of a coherent plan to rescue debt-burdened Pemex that are putting pressure on Mexico’s finances.
On Friday, Lopez Obrador pushed back. Under his predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, “debt was growing and production was falling, and even so, they raised Pemex’s rating,” Lopez Obrador said with a chuckle.
To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Villamil in Mexico City at jvillamil18@bloomberg.net;Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Mexico City at cbarrerad@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Julia Leite at jleite3@bloomberg.net, Alec D.B. McCabe, Philip Sanders
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