OREANDA-NEWS. European sovereign economic and political challenges resulted in negative rating drift for international public finance (IPF) in 2014, according to Fitch Ratings. Downgrades outpaced upgrades by 2.2 to 1, a narrower margin than 5.4 to 1 in 2013, as detailed in a new Fitch study.

Sovereign downgrades of France and Ukraine, as well as Argentina's default triggered respective downgrades of IPF entities in 2014. Conversely, Spain's sovereign upgrade affected ratings of both public entities and local and regional governments (LRGs) accounting for the bulk of upgrades on the year. The 2014 IPF downgrade rate was 15.7% and the upgrade rate, 7.2%.

There were no Fitch-rated IPF defaults registered in 2014 -- this for the seventh consecutive year. Over the period 1995-2014, IPF defaults have been infrequent, with a resulting average annual default rate of 0.34%.

Fitch's new study provides data and analysis on the performance of Fitch's international public finance ratings in 2014 and over the long term, capturing the 1995-2014 period. The report provides summary statistics on the year's key rating trends.