SEOUL, April 26 Reuters South Korea39;s public finances are no longer a strength for its sovereign credit rating but are now a neutral factor requiring nearterm efforts to contain the rise in debt, global ratings agency Fitch said.

We39;ve seen a bit of a deterioration in public finance metrics over the past five or six years, Jeremy Zook, AsiaPacific director of Fitch Ratings, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

And that39;s more on a basis relative to peers. Before the pandemic, Korea39;s debt ratio was much lower than the median of 39;AA39; rating countries, but now, it39;s right in line with the 39;AA39; median.

Last month, when Fitch affirmed South Korea39;s credit rating at AA with a stable outlook, it expected the country39;s sovereign debt ratio to rise to 51.4 of gross domestic product GDP in 2024, higher than the median of 48.5 for AA rated countries, and to 53.6 by 2028, diverging from a downward trend forecast for the AA median.

It39;s not a weakness for Korea39;s credit profile, but it39;s no longer a rating strength for Korea. It39;s more neutral, Zook said, adding fiscal metrics have become more important in rating South Korea and are being watched closely by the credit ratings agency.

Prudent fiscal spending had been an area of credit profile strength for Asia39;s fourthlargest economy and helped to raise its rating on par with Britain, France and Belgium, but the pandemic era of stimulus policies pushed up its debt ratio sharply to…