On Jan. 13, 2009, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Denmark. The outlook is stable. The affirmation reflects our opinion of the resilience of the highly flexible, diversified, and competitive Danish economy, and the strength of public finances even in the midst of a global economic downturn. We believe that this more difficult external environment will prompt the Danish economy to contract in real terms in 2009 as export volumes fall and as consumer and business confidence flags. We expect that public consumption and investment will provide some offsetting support to growth in 2009. As a result, we project that the general government fiscal outturn will fall
