European downgrade ratio improves in 2003, Moody's says

New York, Jan. 7 - The downgrade-to-upgrade ratio for Western Europe improved to 2.7:1 in 2003 from 3.9:1 in 2002, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The figures exclude 20 upgrades in the second quarter that were related to methodology changes for bank commercial paper.

Including these upgrades, the year's ratio was just over 2:1 with a total of 163 issuers downgraded and 80 issuers upgraded.

Moody's also noted that the ratio improved as the year progressed. The third and fourth quarters each saw 24 downgrades compared to a 58 per quarter average in the first half.

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