S&P's rating action will not impact India: SBI Chairman

New Delhi: Rating agency Standard & Poor`s (S&P) refusal to upgrade India`s sovereign ratings will have no major impact on the country`s creditworthiness, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar has said.

Declining to follow Moody's recent India rating upgrade, Standard & Poor's has kept its sovereign rating for the country unchanged at the lowest investment grade of 'BBB-minus' citing high government debt and low income levels.

"That S&P did not upgrade India`s sovereign rating will have no impact on the country`s economic prospects. In fact, just last week Moody`s has upgraded the sovereign rating," state-run SBI`s Chairman Rajnish Kumar told reporters here on the sidelines of the launch of SBI`s integrated lifestyle and banking digital platform YONO.

"If you see the overall business environment in India and the reforms undertaken in recent years, a rating upgrade was long overdue and Moody`s have done so," said the chairman of the largest Indian lender.

"If S&P have not done so, it is their prerogative, but it will have no impact whatsoever," he added.

Meanwhile, the government, which had expected an upgrade following Moody's last week giving India the highest rating since 1988, termed the move as "unfair", calling S&P a "conservative" rating agency which has decided to play "cautious".

While Moody's had on last Friday raised India's sovereign rating from the lowest investment grade of Baa3 to Baa2 - the first upgrade in almost 14 years, and changed the outlook from stable to positive, S&P has kept India at the current rating of 'BBB-minus' since 2007.

S&P's highest ever rating for India stood at BBB in 1990 from which it was downgraded in March 1991. In January 2007, S&P had raised sovereign credit ratings on India to 'BBB-' with a stable outlook, from 'BB+'.

Fitch Ratings' current rating of 'BBB', a notch above junk status, stands as its highest ever.

With Agency Inputs