Fitch Ratings said yesterday that it expects Detroit to miss payments due on the city's general obligation bonds on Oct. 1, an event that would prompt the credit agency to downgrade to D its ratings on Detroit's unlimited tax general obligation and limited tax obligation debt, Reuters reported yesterday. Bill Nowling, a spokesman for Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, declined to comment on whether the city will miss the Oct. 1 payment other than to say, "Nothing has changed" since the city's mid-June report. Orr said in June that most of the general obligation bonds are considered unsecured debt and would not be paid. Fitch, which said Detroit's landmark bankruptcy, if it goes ahead, might be rewriting basic expectations of creditors during a debt workout, cut its ratings in June on the city's certificates of participation to D after a missed debt service payment.
