S&P lowers Papua New Guinea view to negative

Standard & Poor’s said it revised the outlook on Papua New Guinea to negative from stable.

The agency also said it affirmed the country’s foreign- and local-currency long-term ratings at B+ and the respective short-term ratings at B.

Its transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment remains at BB.

The outlook revision reflects a view that downside risks are emerging even as Papua New Guinea’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) project reaches full production, S&P said.

The fall in export-commodity prices since December 2014 is having a larger negative impact on government revenues than expected, the agency said.

Although the government is expected to cut its expenditure plans to partly offset this, the negative impact may prove too challenging for the government to stabilize its debt in line with projections, S&P said.

© 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.