Korea's sovereign rating rises most among OECD nations: report Korea's sovereign rating climbed the most among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the last five years, largely due to its fiscal soundness, a report showed Sunday.  Between the end of 2007 and October of this year, the country's credit rating was upgraded by two notches to "Aa3", the fourth-highest level by Moody's Investors Service, according to the data by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF).  Fitch Ratings lifted the rating to "AA-" from "A+", with Standard & Poors notching it up to "A+" from "A" over the cited period, the report showed. South Korea's four-time upgrades by the three global credit appraisers in the last five years trumped other OECD nations, as so-called "triple A" developed nations like the United States lost their top status amid the protracted global downturn, the KCIF said. Turkey's rating was also notched up on four occasions over the same period but its status remains at junk level, though with a positive outlook, it noted. Four countries including Chile, Estonia and Israel trailed behind Korea with three-time upgrades, followed by Australia with a single notch-up. The report said South Korea's fiscal soundness played a vital role in the back-to-back rating upgrades despite the flagging world economy. The country's debt-to-growth ratio stood at 33.5 percent this year, compared with an average of 125.1 percent for Group 7 nations. "Since Korea suffered from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, we've kept tabs on capital in and outflows, foreign exchange volatility and managed the foreign reserves," said Lee Hee-jeong, an economist at Hyundai Economic Research Institute. The credit index gauging risk-hedging costs for Korea recently fell to a level lower than that of Japan and China, reflecting fiscal stability for Asia's fourth-largest economy, the report said. In contrast, 15 nations including the U.S. and Japan saw their sovereign rating retreat over the cited years, while Germany and 11 others maintained their own. Japan saw its credit rating fall six times by the three major credit appraisers. Over the tallied period, 5 out of 15 top-notch countries saw their ratings get downgraded, with the U.S. losing its "AAA" rating by Standard & Poor's to "AA+" in August, according to the report. (Yonhap)