US credit rating downgraded over rising debt, ‘standards of governance’

Democrats and Republicans in June reached an agreement to avoid a debt default by raising the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit after months of political wrangling [File: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]

Top rating agency Fitch has downgraded the United States’s credit rating over its rising debt and a “deterioration in standards of governance”, prompting protests from the White House.

Fitch, one of the big three rating agencies, on Tuesday dropped the credit rating to AA+, down one notch from the highest rating AAA.