Reuters
Nigeria's finance minister said on Thursday she disagreed with what she called a "surprise" downgrade of the country's credit rating by Moody's, insisting the government was already addressing the agency's concerns. Moody's downgraded the West African oil producer last week to Caa1 from B3, saying the government's fiscal and debt position was expected to keep deteriorating, an announcement that sent Nigeria's dollar-bond and currency forwards tumbling. "Moody's downgrade came as a surprise to us because we had presented all the work that we have been doing to stablise the economy," the minister, Zainab Ahmed, told reporters in Abuja.