Moody's downgrades Egypt's bond rating

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Egypt’s government bond rating to Ba2, and changed its outlook from stable to negative.

The revision in the outlook today is at least the second downgrade by an international ratings agency since mass protests erupted in Egypt last week. The bond ratings were cut from Ba1.

Moody’s said the cut was “prompted by the recent significant rise in political event risk and concern that the policy response could undermine Egypt’s already weak public finances”.

Late last week, Fitch downgraded its outlook on Egypt to negative, from stable, also citing the political unrest.