S&P executive says it could take over a decade to restore US credit rating

From: The Hill

John Chambers, the chairman of Standard & Poor’s sovereign debt ratings, on Sunday estimated that it could take between 9 and 18 years for the nation to regain its AAA credit rating.

Chambers said the credit agency could further downgrade the national rating depending on whether President Obama and congressional leaders can agree on reducing the deficit.

He put the chances of another drop in credit rating at one in three.

Chambers said if the nation’s fiscal scenario worsens or political gridlock becomes more entrenched, “that could lead to a downgrade.”

Chambers said “it could take a while” for the U.S. to regain its perfect credit rating.

“We've had five governments that lost their AAA that got it back. The amount of time that it took for those five range from 9 years to 18 years, so it takes a while,” Chambers said on ABC’s “This Week”.

The ratings agency executive warned that Democrats and Republicans would have to compromise on reducing the nation’s $1.5 trillion annual deficit to win an upgrade from Standard & Poor’s.

“Our concerns are centered on the political side and on the fiscal side. So it would take a stabilization of the debt as a share of the economy and eventual decline. And it would take, I think, more ability to reach consensus in Washington than what we're observing now,” Chambers said.