Bangkok--18 Sep--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) says it expects corporate National Ratings to remain generally stable through 2013, after 85% of the ratings were unchanged in 2012. Nonetheless, challenging factors for the Thai economy remain the deceleration of local demand, lower exports and a fragile global economy — particularly the slowdown in China.
No defaults have been recorded by Fitch since the agency began assigning National Ratings in Thailand in 2001 due to limited issuance of lower-rated bonds, the relatively brief rating history, and the limited size of the Thai bond market.
The study includes all publicly rated long-term corporate finance issuers and also provides transition rates for structured finance transactions.
Fitch’s National Ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with relatively low international sovereign ratings and where there is demand for such ratings. The best risk within a country is rated ‘AAA’ and other credits are rated only relative to this risk. National ratings are designed for use mainly by local investors in local markets and are signified by the addition of an identifier for the country concerned, such as ‘AAA(tha)’ for National ratings in Thailand. Specific letter grades are not therefore internationally comparable
The report, ‘Fitch Thailand National Ratings 2012 Transition Study’ is available under Credit Market Research on Fitch’s International website or by clicking on the above link.