OBR: loss of AAA rating is nothing to fear After George Osborne admitted he will miss his target for reducing Britain's debts and admitted he will borrow billions more over the next five years, Fitch, one of the agencies, said it will review the UK's ratings next year. "It's not entirely clear that would be providing any new information to the markets they hadn't already been able to deduce," Mr Chote said. We have seen other countries suffer that and it has not had a noticeable impact. Mr Chote also appeared to question the fundamental value of credit ratings for major sovereign nations. Ratings are partly an assessment of the risk that country will default on its debts, he said. But because a country like Britain can always print more money to pay its debts, ratings rest on a "debateable premise." Mr Chote's remarks about the potential loss of the AAA rating come after ministers shifted ground on the importance of the rating. Mr Osborne previously named the UK rating as a vital "benchmark" of a government's economic credibility. But last week he suggested that the interest rates on Government bonds - gilts - are a more important measure of credibility.