Record Debt Downgrades in 1990: Standard &...
From Times Staff and Wire reports
Record Debt Downgrades in 1990: Standard & Poor’s Corp. said it assigned record numbers of downgrades to corporate and municipal debt during 1990, and expects a similar trend in 1991. The credit-rating agency said there were four times as many corporate long-term debt rating downgrades as upgrades during the year--768 versus 189. The 1990 figure was also nearly twice the size of 1989’s, when 419 downgrades were recorded. The value of the corporate downgrades was $510 billion, sharply higher than the $174 billion in 1989. Municipal debt attracted 474 downgrades, compared to 131 upgrades. More than half of the municipal downgrades were due to housing, which followed downgrades of supporting banks and insurance companies.
