Moody’s has affirmed its Aa3 rating with a stable outlook for Aberdeen City Council in a regular update.
This is one notch below the United Kingdom sovereign rating of Aa2/Stable.
Aberdeen’s rating reflects the strong institutional framework for Scottish local authorities, and what Moody’s sees as the ‘high likelihood’ that the central government would step in a case of stress.
The rating is backed up by a wealthy local economy, offset by the authority’s high debt burden, though the ratings agency expects this to fall gradually.
The local authority also faces key project risk on The Event Complex Aberdeen conference centre development.
In November 2016, Aberdeen issued at £370m index-linked bond with a maturity date in 2054.
