Oman’s Sovereign Ratings Affirmed; Outlook Revised to Negative

Ref: OM20CRA00-1 7 th February 20 20

Oman’s Sovereign Ratings Affirmed; Outlook Revised to Negative

RATING ACTION

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI), the international credit rating agency, today announced that it has revised the Outlook on Oman’s Long-Term Foreign Currency Rating (LT FCR) and Long-Term Local Currency Rating (LT LCR) to Negative from Stable. At the same time the sovereign’s LT FCR and LT LCR have been affirmed at ‘ BBB- ’ while its Short-Term (ST) FCR and ST LCR have been affirmed at ‘A3’.

RATING RATIONALE

The change in the outlook to Negative reflects CI Ratings’ expectation that Oman’s public and external debt will continue to increase markedly over the forecast horizon due to large deficits in the government budget and the current account. While the government has i ntroduced some fiscal consolidation measures , these ar e unlikely to be sufficient to reverse the deterioration in…