In our view, the U.K. has a wealthy, open, and diversified economy, supported by effective political institutions that can react quickly to economic challenges. We expect economic policy to continue to focus on closing the fiscal gap, and we forecast the U.K. government's net debt burden to peak in 2014. The U.K. benefits from what we see as a large liquid market for government debt issuance, entirely funded in domestic currency at long maturities. We are therefore affirming our 'AAA/A-1+' long- and short-term unsolicited sovereign credit ratings on the U.K. The stable outlook reflects our current expectation that the U.K. government will implement the bulk of its fiscal consolidation program and that economic growth will not falter more than what
