20 October 2007
Medium: Diario de Navarra

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has upgraded its rating of the Autonomous Community of Navarre from AA+ to AAA, the maximum granted to a Spanish region. To date only the Basque Country has been given the triple-A classification which Navarre now holds. According to Alejandro Casas, an analyst at the agency, "this top rating for Navarre reflects a solid and stable budget performance, a high level of fiscal autonomy thanks to its special tax regime, it very low – and falling – level of relative debt, and a very comfortable cash-flow position".

"We hope that Navarre will maintain an equally solid financial performance in the medium term" he added. The forecast is for debt to decrease as well. The agency’s rating forecast is "stable", though it warns that this could change to "negative" in the "unlikely" event of a "sudden change in the economic situation affecting regional finances".

Standard & Poor’s is an independent international credit rating agency which specialises in rating the solvency of companies and financial instruments.