Moody's downgrades Argentina's foreign law bonds

Moody's Investors Service has today lowered the rating of Argentina's foreign law bonds to Caa1. The downgrade reflects the increased default risk of these bonds deriving from ongoing legal proceedings in US courts, and differentiates this portion of Argentina's debt from the rest, according to a communiqué released today.

As part of today's action Moody's affirmed Argentina's B3 issuer rating, which applies to Argentina's domestic legislation bonds, and affirmed the Ca rating on Argentina's $6.3 billion of debt untendered in the 2005 and 2010 debt swaps that remains in default today. The outlook on all these ratings is negative.

Moody's also affirmed Argentina's B3 foreign currency bond ceiling, Caa1 foreign currency deposit ceiling, and the Ba3 local currency bond and deposit ceilings.