On 24 February Moody’s became the last of the three major credit rating agencies to strip the country of its investment grade status. The agency lowered Brazil’s ratings by two notches, from Baa3 to Baa2 with a negative outlook. Fitch Ratings put Brazil in junk territory in December 2015, mirroring a similar move by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in September last year. Without doubt, the first and second downgrade had much greater economic significance; this final downgrade was widely expected and had little impact on the markets. However, it is another blow to President Dilma Rousseff’s handling of the economy, and another decision that will impact negatively on consumer sentiment in the country.End of preview - This article contains approximately 1752 words.
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