Romania, alongside Colombia and 117 companies, are on the list of debtors at risk of being downgraded to the "junk" category, also dubbed as "falling angels," by international rating agency S&P.

Alexandra Dimitrijevic, S&P's Global Head of Research mentioned this in an interview given to Reuters and quoted by major Romanian publications.

Still, it should not come as a surprise since the two countries have the weakest rating in the investment-grade region (BBB-) and, among the sovereign debtors just above the junk region, they are the only ones with a negative outlook.

In Romania's case, S&P is expected to issue a country update on December 4, two days before critical general elections expected to mark an upturn in the fiscal and budgetary policies for avoiding the otherwise imminent downgrade.

The S&P official has not commented about the odds for Romania's downgrade, since the Reuters interview was rather focused on corporate rating and the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the corporate default rate.

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andrei@romania-insider.com