SNP rejects credit rating warnings

THE Scottish Government last night hit back at claims an independent Scotland would struggle to sustain a triple-A credit rating, arguing that public finances were stronger north of the Border than in the UK as a whole.

The government was reacting to an analysis carried out by a leading fund manager that concluded ratings agencies would look critically at Scotland’s poor relative growth and argued there would be a bias towards larger nations when deciding credit status.

Jim Leaviss, a fund manager at the giant M&G Group, delivered his verdict when he looked at what might happen to Scotland and the United Kingdom in the event of the break up of Britain.

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A government spokesman said North Sea reserves and the transfer of new economic levers to Edinburgh would ensure that an independent Scotland’s credit rating remained at AAA. “Scotland is in a far stronger position than the UK in terms of our fiscal position,” he said.