New Delhi, July 19 (TIWN) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday made a strong case for rating agencies to refrain from frequent rating downgrades during the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, which has put economies across the globe under stress and raised the need to increase spending even at the cost of enlarging deficits.

Participating in the 3rd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors ( FMCBG) meeting under the Saudi Arabian Presidency through video conferencing , Sitharaman said that procyclicality of credit rating downgrades by the rating agencies was an issue in current times, especially with regard to its deterrent impact on policy options, particularly for emerging market economies such as India.

The economic stress which the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about has not been seen by the rating agencies differently as they downgraded their ratings for several economies, including India.

In early June, Moody’s downgraded India’s rating by a notch to ‘Baa3′ for the first time in two decades. Fitch Ratings has also revised downward its rating outlook for India from stable to negative, while S&P Global Ratings affirmed ‘BBB-‘ credit ratings for India.