Credit Ratings Firms Unlikely to Act if Japan Drops 2025 Goal

The credit ratings firm affirmed Japan’s rating of A for long-term debt. But the company sounded alarms over recently rising Covid-19 case numbers in Japan, and the possibility of further containment measures and risks to the economic outlook.

Tokyo saw a new daily record in cases last week, prompting the capital’s governor, Yuriko Koike, to ask residents to stay home over last week’s long holiday weekend.

Japan has pushed up its tally of economic measures to combat the virus impact to around $2 trillion, roughly 40% of the size of its economy.

Fitch projects Japan’s economy to contract by 5% for the full year in 2020, before rebounding to 3.2% growth next year. But the firm didn’t expect GDP to return to pre-pandemic levels until the fourth quarter of 2021.

The ratings report had little impact on the yen, which was trading at around 105.10 per dollar Wednesday morning in Tokyo.