Brazil treasury secretary defends rating upgrade as technically sound
Adds further Ceron comments from press conference, analyst comment
BRASILIA, Oct 3 (Reuters) -Brazil's treasury secretary said on Thursday that a credit rating upgrade by Moody's earlier this week, which left the country just one step from regaining investment grade, was based on technical grounds and should be celebrated.
Speaking at a press conference, Rogerio Ceron fired at market players who reacted negatively to the Moody's move citing fiscal concerns, saying that many opinions "rarely have the necessary freedom of bias."
"We achieved this progress, and it should be celebrated by all those who want Brazil to improve," Ceron said, referring to the Moody's upgrade of Brazil's long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings to Ba1 from Ba2.
Reaching an investment grade, which allows countries to issue debt at a lower cost, depends on meeting previously established fiscal goals, he added, emphasizing that government, Congress, Judiciary and society should jointly pursue it.
According to Ceron, the mere prospect of achieving this milestone would already be sufficient to boost foreign investor inflows into the country.
UBS BB analysts said that an investment grade for Brazil is unlikely in the next three years, given the challenges for the government to effectively eliminate its primary fiscal deficit in an environment marked by high interest rates and debt refinancing cost.
Ceron noted that stabilizing Brazil's gross debt – currently at 78.5% of gross domestic product – is a key fiscal policy goal.
The Treasury currently expects it to happen by 2028, with the ratio rising to 81-82% of GDP by then, said Ceron.
"It's important that we adopt measures to achieve fiscal consolidation once again and stabilize the debt trajectory, ideally slightly below 80%. That would be a great result," he said.
Brazil first received an investment-grade rating in 2008, during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's second term.
The status with all three major rating agencies was lost between 2015 and 2016, as the global commodity boom faded and the country faced a series of fiscal crises.
Based on S&P and Fitch's assessments, Brazil remains two notches away from achieving investment grade again.
Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Bill Berkrot
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