Korean companies suffered a series of credit downgrades last year, while three global rating agencies maintained their credit outlook for the nation at stable, the Korea Center for International Finance found Wednesday.

According to a KCIF report, the world’s top three credit ratings agencies Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s lowered the credit ratings of Korean companies 10 times last year. 

The companies included POSCO, Shinsegae, LG Electronics, Woori Investment & Securities, Citibank Korea, Korea Investment Holdings and Nonghyup.

The three agencies had maintained the credit ratings of local companies between 2005 and 2007. However, there were 11 downgrades in 2008 and 25 in 2009.

Even though the number of downgrades sharply decreased to five in 2010, the figure doubled again to 10 last year due to the economic slowdown and plunging property market, the report explained.

“Unlike their positive outlook about Korea and its banks, the credit rating agencies appear to still have some doubts about our companies,” said a KCIF researcher.

“The future global recession is likely to affect negatively Korean companies. But considering that they view the local car industry positively that depends largely on exports, there is no need to worry excessively.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)