Baa Baa Baa: Moody's grants investment grade to Peru

The Trifecta is complete. Last year S&P and Fitch slapped 'investment grade' on Peru and both of those must have been sweating the call when the stock market sunk under 7,000 during the crisis and the "we're going to grow 6% and we won't be affected by the financial crisis" ridiculousness of its government was shown to be the big fat lie that it clearly was.

But now Moody's, always the toughest nut to crack, has joined in, raising its rating to the aptly named "Baa Baa Baa" (well, really it's 'Baa3'....geddit?). The upshot of this will be more money can now enter the country for investment purposes if it wants to. Let's not worry about the new capital gains tax on stock market profits though, eh?

So congrats of sorts to Peru, but the truism of ratings agencies calling tops in stock markets shouldn't be forgotten, either.

Peru and Moody's: All you need to know

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Peru’s foreign debt rating was put on review for an increase to investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service (continues)

September 29 (AP): "....But Moody's faces additional scrutiny because one of its former analysts has accused the company of pressuring its analysts to inflate bond ratings, and its biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has unloaded nearly 9 million shares since July (continues)...."

September 23 (Reuters) - A former analyst with Moody's Corp (NYSE:MCO - News) has accused the credit ratings agency of issuing inflated ratings, and has taken his concerns to U.S. congressional investigators, the Wall Street Journal reported (continues)

May 29 2008 (Rebuild org): "The Moody's Corporation, a securities rating firm, is under suspicion of giving false ratings to some of the securities that it had been evaluating. Currently, the corporation is looking into whether those inaccurate, high ratings were the result of computer mistakes (continues)"

LIMA, March 24 2009 (Reuters) - More Peruvians went hungry last year despite blazing economic growth, a sign that President Alan Garcia is stumbling in efforts to direct benefits of an impressive expansion to the poor. The percentage of people in Peru with inadequate nutrition rose by more than 11 percent in 2008, faster than the economy's 9.8 percent surge, according to the national statistics agency. Now, 32 percent of Peruvians do not get enough to eat (continues)

LIMA, Oct 8 2008 (Reuters) - UPDATE 1 - Thousands march against García, corruption in Peru (continues)

Hundreds of other links available.

Pisco sours served, the end.

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