INDIA

"Our role is to call the risks objectively, with transparency, and that's what we try to do to fulfill our role and that's what our job is for the benefit of investors," Sharma told the CNBC news channel in an interview.Going from AAA to AA+ rating, he argued, doesn't mean the US is going to default. "It just means its more risky today than a year ago."The S&P, Sharma argued, factored in the political process of the United States in its calculation because it "speaks to how the fiscal, economic and monetary choices are being made.""S&P's view was based on a number of factors including projections of rising debt levels," he asserted.The S&P has been facing criticism in the United States after it downgraded its credit rating. In fact top American leadership have been questioning its credibility.Sharma said he is pleased by President Barack Obama's speech in which he addressed the need for US lawmakers to have a new sense of urgency to tackle long-term deficit spending.Acknowledging that S&P committed mistakes that played a part in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Sharma said the credit rating agency has learned lessons from its past mistake."Clearly the housing declines were much more severe than we forecast or anticipated," Sharma said.S&P has made many changes in putting new checks and balances in the organization."We are committed to the reform process," Sharma said.He argued that S&P's decision is not solely responsible for the drop in the US market, adding that stock markets are determined by a number of factors, sometime many of which are unexplainable."The market could be reacting to the fact there is a slowdown in economic growth. It could be reacting to what's happening in Europe. It could be what's happening in the US. There are multiple factors that...contribute to how the market reacts," Sharma added. [More]
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