Moody’s downgraded Siemens AG’s debt rating last week, saying that productivity improvements have had too little effect. The German industrial and IT conglomerate expects productivity to improve by 10% for the year, and it believes that Moody’s action won’t have a negative impact on its financial standing. Productivity has improved by around 4% per annum over the past few years, and Siemens says it will speed up this year, feeding through to a positive bottom line. In particular, it cites efficiency gains, profitable acquisitions, the disposal of loss- making businesses and very fast growth in its Asian operations.
