Moody’s: Brazil is Junk; Credit Metrics Have Deteriorated Materially

Whatever happened to BRIC? I hope FANG doesn’t go by the wayside, like this BRIC concept. I realize some of you want to believe the savage will one day drop the spear in exchange for a briefcase. Truth is, he’d just be a savage with a briefcase.

Moody’s cut Brazil’s credit rating to junk. The economy is undergoing its worst recession in a century. Petrobras is likely to reorganize its $150 billion debt burden. Naked, poor, forked, fucked, radish.

Brazil’s credit metrics have deteriorated “materially” in the past few months and will worsen over the next three years, according to the ratings company, which also cited the negative impact of political gridlock on the government’s efforts to close a budget deficit and undertake structural reforms. The cut — Brazil’s third in as many months from major ratings companies — adds pressure on Rousseff to win lawmakers’ support for measures to raise taxes and reduce spending as she fights off efforts to impeach her.

“Even though it wasn’t a surprise, it still sends a negative signal to investors,” said Arnaud Masset, an analyst at Swissquote Bank SA in Gland, Switzerland. “Unfortunately, Brazil’s outlook remains very cloudy as the market expects more from lawmakers than minor reforms.”

“Macroeconomic and fiscal developments over the next two to three years are expected to produce a materially weaker credit profile,” Moody’s said. “The negative outlook contemplates the risks of further deterioration to Brazil’s credit profile emanating from macroeconomic shocks, deeper political dysfunction or the need to support government-related entities.”

This is only the opening salvo in a sequence of events that is going to force you to write memoirs about this period in time. Get your popped corn ready.