General Motors reduced the rating due to pensioners

Moody's International rating agency lowered the General Motors credit ratings and its financial unit General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC). Reducing the long -term credit rating of GM to VAA1, and the GMAC rating - to "A3" reflects the intensified competition in the North American markets and significant pension costs and medical programs for retirement employees, Moody's reports in his report.

The forecast of both ratings remains negative, Interfax reports.

“GM is known about the difficult problems facing it, and the company boldly approaches their solution,” comments Jerry Dubrovsky, a press secretary of the car concern.

Judging by the rating, Moody's experts consider the problems very serious. The agency celebrates increased competition, especially from Japanese, South Korean and German manufacturers, high costs of pension programs, customer attracting programs and “flood” of the market with used cars - a problem facing the entire American automobile industry.

GM ratings of the Moody's Agency, even after a decrease, exceed the ratings of Standard & Poor's, given to the company.

Wayne Schmidt, manager of Advantus Capital Management, believes that reducing ratings should not be a surprise. “We had GM papers, the rating of which was at the“ A ”or higher, two or three months ago, but then we sold them, because we knew that this was only a matter of time when the ratings would be reduced,” said the financier of Wall Street Journal .

According to Schmidt, the ratings can soon lower "a couple more points", since the key question here is the colossal debts of the GM, with which it is so easy not to manage the concern. According to WSJ, the GM and GMAC debt is about $ 200 billion.