month global speculative-grade default rate dropped to 3.3 percent in November 2010, down from a level of 3.7 percent in October, said Moody's Investors Service in a new report. A year ago, the global default rate stood much higher at 13.6 percent. The ratings agency's default rate forecasting model now predicts that the global speculative-grade default rate will fall to 2.9 percent by the end of this year before declining further to 1.8 percent by November 2011. In the US, the speculative-grade default rate edged lower from 3.6 percent in October to 3.5 percent in November. At this time last year, the US default rate reached the highest level in this cycle at 14.7 percent. European default rate among speculative-grade issuers declined to 1.9 percent in November from 2.8 percent in October 2010. Default rate in Europe stood at 11.5 percent in November 2009, which was also the peak in the financial crisis.
