The Big Question: Was Moody's right on the UK?

Alan Wilde, Barings Real risk of credit downgrade     The recent move to place the UK on a negative outlook was no surprise. Moody’s warned of rising challenges in achieving debt reduction targets in the UK within the timeframe laid out by the government.  This follows the release last month of disappointing UK GDP growth figures for Q4 2011. Although the UK is better placed than countries within the eurozone, it is not immune to contractionary economic forces. To date, the government’s ambitious fiscal consolidation programme has been meeting and exceeding debt reduction forec...