LONDON Nov. 2, 2006 - The world's top 10 economic centers all have investment-grade credit ratings, reflecting the importance of economic performance as a key factor when evaluating local government creditworthiness, according to a first-ever Report Card, "The World's Top 10 Economic Centers," published today by Standard & Poor's.
A strong, dynamic, and diversified economy often correlates with robust and growing tax revenues with positive implications on a government's financial flexibility and budgetary performance, the report notes.
Standard & Poor's selected the "top 10" economic centers based on:
-- the economic importance of the countries in which they are located (all of which are G8 members);
-- their role as the major economic center(s) in their respective country;
-- the depth of the services that they provide as well as the economic importance that each city provides to its respective service area and to the country as a whole; and
-- their size (each has at least one million inhabitants).
Based on these criteria, the top 10 rated economic centers are:
-- City of Paris (AAA/Stable/--);
-- Greater London Authority (AA+/Stable/--);
-- City of Los Angeles (AA/Stable/--);
-- City of Madrid (AA/Stable/A-1+);
-- City of Toronto (AA/Stable/A-1+); and
-- City of Yokohama (AA-/Positive/--).
-- City of Chicago (AA-/Stable/--);
-- City of New York (AA-/Stable/--);
-- City of Milan (A+/Stable/--);
-- City of Moscow (BBB+/Stable/--);
The Report Card discusses how each of these cities is performing in regard to revenues and spending. Data are provided to enable the cities to be compared by a variety of economic and financial statistics. The major credit-related strengths, weaknesses, and outlook are provided for each as well. In addition, they are ranked by GDP per capita, revenues per capita, relative level of capital expenditures, and unemployment rate.
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 7,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 21 countries. Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.
|