Moody’s downgrades Oman to Baa1

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Oman's long-term issuer ratings to Baa1 from A3 and assigned a stable outlook.

This action concludes the rating review for downgrade initiated on Feb. 26.

Moody’s said the key driver for the downgrade is its view that, despite the sizable fiscal consolidation efforts undertaken by the government, a protracted period of low oil prices will negatively affect Oman's sovereign credit profile beyond the level Moody's anticipated in February when it downgraded the rating to A3 from A1.

The stable outlook reflects a number of strengths, which the agency believes will counterbalance potential downside risks and keep the credit profile compatible with a Baa1 rating over the coming years. These include low levels of government indebtedness and fiscal buffers.

Moody's also lowered Oman's long-term foreign-currency bond ceiling to A3 from A2 and its long-term foreign-currency deposit ceiling to Baa1 from A3. The short-term foreign-currency bond ceiling was downgraded to Prime-2 from Prime-1, while the short-term foreign-currency deposit ceiling remains at Prime-2. In addition, the long-term local-currency country risk ceilings were lowered to A3 from A2.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.