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US loses last perfect credit rating amid rising debt

Moody's said successive US administrations had failed to reverse ballooning deficits and interest costs.

A triple-A rating signifies a country's highest possible credit reliability, and indicates it is considered to be in very good financial health with a strong capacity to repay its debts. The downgrade "reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns," Moody's said in the statement. Moody's maintained that the US "retains exceptional credit strengths such as size, resilience and dynamism and the continued role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency".

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