Just as Standard & Poor's (S&P) said that the US fiscal cliff deal doesn't change the country's credit outlook, rival agency Moody's Investors Services has indicated that Congress needs to do more to tackle its financing problems, saying that its current 'triple-A' rating remains at risk.

While noting that the deal reached by US lawmakers is a "further step in clarifying the medium-term deficit and debt trajectory", Moody's made clear that "it does not, however, provide a basis for a meaningful improvement in the (US) government's debt ratios over the medium term."

Moody's said that the fate of the 'AAA' rating will depend on whether lawmakers can agree on further debt reductions. These experts believe that the US debt ceiling will be raised around the end of February or beginning of March and that new measures for debt reduction will be taken at that time.

"Moody's will need to consider these measures in assessing the rating outlook. Further revenue measures may also form part of the negotiations. The debt trajectory resulting from this process is likely to determine whether the 'Aaa' rating is returned to a stable outlook or downgraded to 'Aa1', as Moody's stated last September," the credit agency said.

JM

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