IFIs sceptical of rating agencies

Doubt about private credit rating agencies’ assessments have grown since 2008 and are being echoed by World Bank president Robert Zoellick. “After the experience of the past years, I would not want to rely completely on the judgement of such agencies anymore,” Zoellick told German weekly Die Zeit. In August 2010, Standard and Poor’s was criticised by the IMF executive director representing Ghana for downgrading the country from B+ to B. He said that “the downgrade [was] based on wrong information.” European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has backed calls from Germany and others for a public competitor to the agencies, but promises for action remain unfulfilled.