Monroe County’s lending rating has gone up.

Monroe County commissioner John Christy said at the board meeting on Oct. 4 that Moody’s Investors Service Inc. has upgraded the municipality’s lending rating. The county had been rated Aa3 with a negative outlook, but was increased to Aa3 rating with a regular outlook on Oct. 3.

Moody’s gives a financial rating to all municipalities to indicate the level of risk a lender would take lending money to each municipality, Christy explained.

“They removed the negative outlook from our rating, which will make it more feasible when we borrow money in the future, if that needs to happen,” Christy said. “Probably the rate that we will pay will be less, so it’s a piece of good news for the county that our bonding agency or our credit rating agencies have improved our rating.”

Christy explained that a negative outlook means that there is a risk that the municipality could slip below the next level.

“We are still considered high grade, and this puts us a half a notch above being high grade,” Christy said.

According to Moody’s rating scale and definitions, Aa is considered to be high quality with very low credit risk. Aaa is the highest rating for long-term investments. This is followed by Aa1, Aa2, and Aa3, A1, A2, A3, Baa1, Baa2, and Baa3.