Chance Of Olympic Postponement A Concern For Japan's Economy Rather Than Tokyo?s Creditworthiness

TOKYO (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 21, 2020--Tokyo Metropolitan Government's (TMG; A+/Positive/--) high cash reserves, accumulated through disciplined financial management, remove concern about its budgetary balance even if the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) triggers postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics, in S&P Global Ratings' view. Media reports have raised the possibility of infectious COVID-19 spreading enough to delay the 2020 Olympics. Postponement of the Olympics would require infection lasting beyond our base-case scenario. Such prolonged infection would hurt domestic consumer sentiment and Japan's entire economy, not just inbound tourist consumption. We do not expect postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games, as our baseline scenario assumes the spread of the virus will be contained in March. Even in the event the Olympics are

...February 21, 2020 TOKYO (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 21, 2020--Tokyo Metropolitan Government's (TMG; A+/Positive/--) high cash reserves, accumulated through disciplined financial management, remove concern about its budgetary balance even if the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) triggers postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics, in S&P Global Ratings' view. Media reports have raised the possibility of infectious COVID-19 spreading enough to delay the 2020 Olympics. Postponement of the Olympics would require infection lasting beyond our base-case scenario. Such prolonged infection would hurt domestic consumer sentiment and Japan's entire economy, not just inbound tourist consumption. We do not expect postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games, as our baseline scenario assumes the spread of the virus will be contained in March. Even in the event the Olympics are postponed, we view the additional cost burden for TMG to be limited. This is because TMG's expenditures for construction of permanent facilities...

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