Ireland unlikely to default despite cut

IRELAND is highly unlikely to default on its burgeoning national debt despite a second downgrading in 90 days of the state’s sovereign debt rating.

Royal Bank of Scotland’s senior bond strategist, Harvinder Sian, in London said: “Ireland has many, many problems and we continue to view it as the weakest fiscal risk in the European Monetary Union.

“But investors should not leap to the view that this is an Iceland in disguise.