Fitch Ratings Updates Sovereign Rating Criteria; No Rating Impact in World Economy News 07/05/2026 Fitch Ratings has revised its Sovereign Rating Criteria, incorporating some minor changes and additions to its criteria for the rating of sovereign issuers. The application of the updated criteria will not result in any rating changes. The substance of the criteria is unaltered, and we do not consider the revisions material. The changes and additions relate only to the rating of deferable notes, which allow for interest and/or principal deferral. The revised criteria update the conditions that must be met for Fitch to rate the notes in line with the Issuer Default Rating (IDR) (adjusted by the Recovery Rating (RR) when applicable). These conditions are that no haircut of face value is contemplated, the amounts deferred accrue interest, do not extend beyond the final maturity of the bond, and any deferral is for a maximum of 24 months. Payment deferrals depend on a set of pre-defined events (e.g. linked to catastrophic events, such as natural disasters) or other defined deferral triggers. The number of payment deferrals is limited, typically no more than once in the life of a bond unless it is of long maturity, or if specific pre-defined events occur. Under these conditions, a deferral of debt payments would not itself trigger a default provided deferral triggers/creditor protections were in line with bond terms. The revised criteria provide scope to rate instruments with deferral triggers that are not necessarily narrowly pre-defined, such as those with broad debt pause clauses, as proposed earlier this month by the London Coalition on Sustainable Sovereign Debt. The revised criteria also provide scope to notch down the rating of deferrable notes from the IDR (adjusted by the RR when applicable) on a case-by-case basis if the conditions for rating them in line with the IDR (adjusted by the RR when applicable) are only partially met. If Fitch were to notch down for non-