The case of Greece proves once again that ratings of a country’s creditworthiness by the houses are worthless, writes an opinion article published in Bloomberg.

As the columnist notes, Greek bonds have yielded 14% over the past five years, the highest among government issuers with an investment grade rating.

And yet, Greece was just recently upgraded to investment grade by S&P and Fitch, while for some reason, Moody’s still lists it as junk.

Contrary to what ratings dictate about which bonds are safe, Greece has borrowed in recent years at a lower cost than the average of investment-grade countries, Bloomberg data show.

And in May, for the first time in a decade, its borrowing costs were comparable to those of A-rated countries, five notches higher than its own rating at the time.

Market prices show that at the moment, Greece could borrow at an interest rate of about 18 basis points lower than AA-rated countries, i.e. 7 notches higher than its own.

And at the same time, the Greek 10-year bond is yielding 50 basis points lower than its AA-rated UK counterpart.

moneyreview.gr