Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday upgraded its credit outlook for the United States government to "stable" from "negative," saying the chances of a downgrade of the country's rating is "less than one in three."
In August 2011, S&P became the first credit rating agency to downgrade the sovereign U.S. credit rating from top-rated "AAA" to "AA ," the second highest rating, and had left the U.S. credit outlook at "negative" at that time.