The international credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded yesterday Tuesday the long-term credit of his state Israelfrom ‘A+’ to ‘A’, with a negative outlook, due to growing security risks linked to wars against it Hezbollah to Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The reason is the “increasing likelihood that Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, given the recent escalation of fighting, will be prolonged and intensified, leading to risks to Israel’s security,” S&P explained in a statement.

He estimated that “military activity in Gaza” and the escalation of fighting “on Israel’s northern border”, including ground operations on Lebanese soil, “may last until 2025”, raising “risks of retaliation against Israel”.

For this last one, the house pointed to yesterday’s attack by Iran, which launched some 180 missiles against Israeli territory, to avenge the deaths of its allies in the region – the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah and the Palestinian Hamas Ismail Haniya.

As a result, “we expect the recovery of the economy to be delayed,” S&P continued, discounting a rise in the budget deficit in the short to medium term due to continued growth in military spending.

He also revised his forecast for the growth of the Israeli economy in hand: he now predicts stagnation in 2024 and an expansion rate of 2.2% of GDP in 2025, compared to 5% so far.

The short-term note, however, remained unchanged at “A-1”.

On Friday, Moody’s also downgraded Israel’s sovereign debt, for the second time in 2024, from ‘A2’ to ‘Baa1’, with a negative outlook. “The intensity of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has greatly increased in recent days,” he explained.