Ohio's Credit Rating Cut Due to "Pronounced Economic Underperformance"

Bloomberg reports:

Credit ratings on Ohio’s $9.6 billion of debt were cut by Moody’s Investors Service as the state’s manufacturing-based economy shrinks more than the nation’s.

Moody’s reduced its assessment of Ohio’s $6.8 billion of general obligation bonds to Aa2, the third-highest grade, from Aa1, the New York-based rating company said in a news release today. Ohio debt with payments subject to appropriation was cut to Aa3, the fourth highest, from Aa2.

“These rating actions follow a long period of pronounced economic underperformance caused, in part, by the overweighting of manufacturing in the state’s industry employment profile,” Moody’s analysts led by Ted Hampton and Maria Coritsidis said in the release.