Sovereign credit rating
An agency's assessment of a state's ability and willingness to service its debts.
How to read the number
It works as a ceiling for everyone else: a company is rarely rated above its sovereign, because the state affects its payments directly through taxes and settlement rules.
When the metric lies
Rating changes tend to follow events rather than warn of them, yet a downgrade still forces selling by funds bound to a minimum quality.
Also known as: sovereign rating