NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings today published 'Fitch Mexico National Ratings 2012 Transition and Default Study'. The report offers data and analysis on the performance of Fitch Mexico's National Ratings of both the corporate and structured finance sectors over the most recent year - 2012 - and over the long term, covering the period 2002-2012.
Fitch Mexico's national corporate finance rating activity remained net positive in 2012. The resulting downgrade-to-upgrade ratio was 0.7 to 1, compared with 0.3-to-1 a year earlier.
For those countries in which foreign and local currency Sovereign ratings are below 'AAA', and where there is investor demand for such ratings, Fitch will provide National Ratings. It is important to note that each National Rating scale is unique and is defined to serve the needs of the local market in question.
The National Rating scale provides a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities only within the respective country concerned. Under this rating scale, an 'AAA' long-term National Rating will be assigned to the lowest relative risk within that country, which, in most but not all cases, will be that of the sovereign state.
The National Rating scale merely ranks the degree of perceived risk relative to the lowest default risk in that same country. As do local currency ratings, National Ratings exclude the effects of sovereign and transfer risk and exclude the possibility that investors may be unable to repatriate any due interest and principal repayments. It is not related to the rating scale of any other national market. Comparisons between different national scales or between an individual national scale and the international rating scale are therefore inappropriate and potentially misleading. Consequently they are identified by the addition of a special identifier for the country concerned, such as 'AAA(mex)' for National Ratings in Mexico.
The special report is available on Fitch's websites 'www.fitchmexico.com' and 'www.fitchratings.com' under Credit Market Research.
Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.
Applicable Criteria and Related Research Fitch Mexico National Ratings 2012 Transition and Default Study
http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=704454
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