Credit defaults were virtually non-existent in the first half of 2014, as a very benign credit environment prevailed across most sectors and asset classes, says Fitch Ratings in a new report.

The rating agency reports that it didn’t record any investment-grade defaults in the first six months of 2014 across corporates, structured finance, sovereigns and public finance. For below investment grade securities, the default activity was “unexceptional”, it says.

Fitch says its global corporate default rate for the first half was just 0.35%, and the speculative-grade default rate was 1.12%. “Central bank easing and stable to improving regional economies remain key supports of the benign default rate environment,” it says.

Overall, the rating environment was very stable, Fitch says, as less than 10% of ratings were affected by downgrades or upgrades in the first half. And, it notes that rating stability was evident in both financial and industrial entities. “Good fundamentals notwithstanding, the return of shareholder-oriented transactions signals that post-crisis conservatism, a key support of the low default rate environment, is waning,” the report notes.

There were no sovereign defaults recorded in the first six months of the year, although Argentina fell into that category in July. “Developed market credit quality stabilized in the first half while emerging market momentum slowed, effectively ending the convergence of developed and emerging market sovereign ratings,” Fitch says. “Downside risks remain, most notably for select sovereigns affected by geopolitical stress.”

Finally, it reports that impairment activity in global structured finance was also at its lowest level since the economic crisis in the first half of the year. “Overwhelmingly, impairments originated from older vintage ‘CCC’ rated bonds,” it says. The asset-backed securities sector registered the lowest overall impairment rate, 0.07%, it notes; versus 0.7% for commercial mortgage-backed securities, 1.0% for structured credit, and 1.4% for residential mortgage-backed securities.