In October 2016, Aberdeen City Council announced that it had become the first local authority in Scotland to be given a credit rating, which would allow the council to issue bonds of £370 million on the London Stock Exchange.

The council was initially assigned an Aa2 rating which was one level below the rest of the UK as a whole. 

However, Scottish Housing News reported in November 2019 that Moody’s Investors Service had downgraded the council’s credit outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’.

After the latest annual credit rating review, the outlook has once again been labelled as ‘negative’.

This drop was after the UK Government’s Aa2 ranking outlook also dropped from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ in November, The Evening Express reports.

A new council report, to be considered by the city growth and resources committee later this week, said: “The downgrade in the outlook follows, and is in line with, the recent downgrade to the UK’s economic outlook.

“The credit profile also reflects a high likelihood the UK Government intervene in the event of acute liquidity stress.”