The province still has a strong credit rating.
Moody’s Investors Service has maintained the province’s “AAA’ credit rating despite the chaos that has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is news that pleases Finance Minister Donna Harpauer.
This is good for two reasons.” Harpauer explains. “One is it allows us to borrow at a lower interest rate than other jurisdictions as long as we can keep the credit rating where it is. The second one is it is something investors look into when making a decision where to invest.”
Moody’s says Saskatchewan has on-going credit strengths including a strong institutional framework and strong debt and treasury management.
Harpauer says Moody’s can see what the province was doing before COVID-19 and what will be done after.
“We have forged ahead. We were the first province to have a post-pandemic budget so I hope we can build further budgets to maintain that strength.” Harpauer said.
She says despite the fact that province is sitting with a deficit of $2.1 billion that the province is slowly moving in the right direction and is on track when it comes to recovery. Last month, Harpauer said the plan was to be back to having a balanced budget by 2024-25.
