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Will take time to gauge impact on Korea's finances, he says
"The impact of North Korea's missile launches or a free trade deal with the United States on South Korea's credit rating is marginal," John Chambers, managing director for sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's, said in an interview with reporters from Korea. During the interview at the headquarters of Standard and Poor's on Wall Street, New York, Chambers admitted that the North Korea issue still remains a burden to upgrading South Korea’s economic rating, but added that the missile launches will not prompt any adjustment of the existing rating. The remarks come less than a month after Pyongyang test-fired up to seven missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, into the East Sea, in defiance of repeated warnings from the international community."The financial market remained stable even right after the North?s missile launches," Chambers said. Touching on the ongoing free trade talks between Seoul and Washington, Chambers noted that those negotiations would not affect South Korea’s sovereign ratings, as opposed to the adjustments made for Chile, Israel, and Singapore after the United States signed deals with those countries. He explained that the situation for South Korea is different from those countries and added that it will take time to evaluate the exact impact of the free trade agreement. As far as challenges confronting Asia’s fourth-largest economy, Chambers cited high oil prices, rising interest rates, and protectionism by the United States. He also noted that Standard & Poor’s pays keen attention to the South Korean government’s economic policies, saying that its market intervention could have a negative impact on the nation’s credit rating. In the wake of the financial crisis that gripped South Korea in the late 1990s, he said that the nation's economic fundamentals have become stable more than other Asian countries, with its credibility improved significantly.
