Mumbai, August 18: Standard & Poor's director Ken Mclay on Tuesday said India's sovereign rating was under annual review. He, however, refused to divulge what the rating might be. Mclay was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on corporate and financial institution rating in Mumbai.On being asked whether India would stay insulated from a possible second round of the southeast Asian crisis, director, corporate ratings, Chris Legge, said that it would depend on the degree of insulation and control. "India is self-sufficient to some extent and not highly exposed to other market forces," he said.
However, Crisil managing director R Ravimohan said devaluation of the Russian rouble would "force China to take a relook at its currency valuation and can lead to another round of devaluations in southeast Asia."
"We should set our house straight rather than wait for a meltdown," he said, adding that cleaning up of bank balance sheets and a take off in investments in infrastructure should be prioritised.
The slowing down of the economy could lead to higher non performing assets (NPAs), a negative feature for the banking sector, and the consequent higher provisioning could also lead to lower capitalisation, Mclay added.
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