S&P Global about Israel's bonds

Credit soundness affirmed. Israel can continue to finance its war.

This month, S&P Global -- the company formerly known as Standard & Poor's', the bond rating giant -- affirmed the long and short term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings of the state of Israel at A/A-1.

Of course, since they aren't idiots, the authors of this report observed that prolonged or intensified military conflict can negatively impact fiscal soundness and balance-of-payments performance. So the resumed military operations in Gaza and 'ongoing military activities' in Lebanon and Syria, could lead to a ratings deterioration. The time for that deterioration is not yet, though.

But the report also says that Israel has strong fiscal fundamentals (which means it has a sufficiently productive economy to create tax debtors and it is good at collecting from them), which have gifted it with a net external asset position and a current account surplus. In short: if you buy Israel's bonds or notes, you are very likely to get your principal and promised interest back as contractually stipulated.

Recent reports from the other big raters, Fitch and Moody's, say much the same.

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