S&P increases Greece’s rating from selective default to B-minus

Standard and Poor’s has raised the credit rating of Greece’s sovereign debt by six levels, praising the “strong determination” of fellow European countries to help it stay in the eurozone.

S&P has increased Greece’s rating from “selective default” to “B-minus”.

The rating agency also praised the continuing efforts by Greece’s government to cut its spending.

Greece is currently receiving the second of two bailouts.

Last week, Greece started to receive the latest tranche of the bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

They agreed to release 49.1 billion euros ($57 billion) after continuing austerity work by Greece, and a buyback of some of its debt.

A total of 240 billion euros has been earmarked for Greece from the two bailout loans.

So far, Greece has received nearly 149 billion euros ($191 billion) from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund, out of that 240billion euros.

S&P said in its statement: “The upgrade reflects our view of the strong determination of European Economic and Monetary Union (eurozone) member states to preserve Greek membership in the eurozone.

“The outlook on the long-term rating is stable, balancing our view of the government’s commitment to a fiscal and structural adjustment against the economic and political challenges of doing so.”

Greece had to seek the bailouts to meet its debt repayments after years of overspending meant it could not keep up with its debt obligations.

The negative market opinion of Greece’s situation only worsened its position, as it pushed up the yield, or level of interest, that the country had to offer on the sale of its new government bonds, in order to attract buyers.