The credit rating agency Moody's on Friday downgraded the Wallonia region's score from A1, with a negative outlook, to A2, giving it a stable outlook. Last July, by describing the A1 negative score of the region at that time, Moody's had stressed that although having greater fiscal autonomy, the Walloon region had not planned for the use of associated levers to mitigate budget deficits.
The Walloon Budget Minister, Christophe Lacroix, however has no intention of changing course “to a tighter and unbalanced policy.”
This is the message from his office which states, “The minister favours efficient and active debt management, a sustainable reduction in expenditure, improvement in budget and accounting governance, optimising procedures, and indeed making particular expenses internal rather than outsourcing.”
In the eyes of Mr Lacroix (of the Socialist Party), such “just and fair measures are allowing for a gradual decline in the public deficit. Contemporaneously, Wallonia is able to lead ambitious policies and maintain gains, in particular in terms of jobs.”
The Brussels Times
