Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded its outlook for Japan's foreign and local currency long-term sovereign debt from stable to negative as it expects high reconstruction costs in the wake of last month's earthquake and tsunami to swell the country's debt. S&P reckons reconstruction costs could range from 20 trillion-50 trillion yen ($244 billion-$610 billion), with 30 trillion yen, or around $366 billion, its central forecast, and expects net general government debt to GDP to reach 145% of GDP in the year ending Mar. 31, 2014, up from a previous forecast of 137%.
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