The North American financial rating agency has scheduled an evaluation of the Portuguese Republic's debt for Friday, after raising the 'rating' to 'A3' in November, with a stable outlook.

"I don't think there will be any changes", predicts the president of IMF -- Informação de Mercados Financeiros, Filipe Garcia.

On the other hand, the senior economist of Banco Carregosa Paulo Rosa believes that "Moody's will eventually keep the 'rating' at "A3", but it is possible that the 'outlook' [prospect] will be revised upwards to positive".

"Moody's will certainly reiterate its continued confidence in the positive trend of Portugal's public accounts, but it will most likely also mention that a government supported by a minority coalition could be a sign of fragility in reinforcing the same downward trajectory of the Portuguese public debt ratio to nominal GDP", points out Paulo Rosa.

For the economist, a government supported by a minority coalition could temporarily hinder upward revisions of the Portuguese Republic's credit rating.

Filipe Garcia points out that, on the positive side, Moody's "could highlight the new Government's commitment to discipline in public accounts and to the economy's growth trajectory, which is better than the European average, although worse than that of the cohesion countries".

However, on the negative side, "the risk of government and potentially budgetary instability could be noted, as well as the approval of spending measures against the Government's wishes".

According to the president of IMF, in the models, Moody's "should take into account the decrease in the 'spread' vs Germany and the level of the 10-year rate, but also the more unfavourable dynamics that are being installed in the relationship between interest rates and the evolution of the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, consequently, in current and future tax revenue compared to the evolution of the marginal interest rate".

On 1 March, when Portugal was already preparing for early elections, Standard & Poor's raised the rating of Portuguese sovereign debt from 'BBB+' to 'A-', which brought the country's 'rating' to the 'A' level in all major agencies.

Fitch confirmed Portugal's 'rating' at 'A-' on 22 March, maintaining a 'stable' outlook, while DBRS confirmed Portugal's 'rating' at 'A' on 19 January, also maintaining a 'stable' outlook.

The 'rating' is an evaluation attributed by financial rating agencies, with a great impact on the financing of countries and companies, since it assesses credit risk.

However, the calendars of the 'rating' agencies are merely indicative, and they may choose not to make a statement on the scheduled dates or to proceed with an unscheduled evaluation.

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