Oman’s Sovereign Ratings Lowered; Outlook Revised to Stable from Negative

Ref: OM19CRA00-1 15th February 2019

Oman’s Sovereign Ratings Lowered; Outlook Revised to Stable from Negative

RATING ACTION

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI ) , the international credit rating agency, today announced that it has lowered Oman’s Long-Term Foreign Currency (LT FC) and Long-Term Local Currency (LT LC) Issuer Ratings to ‘BBB-’ from ‘BBB’. At the same time, CI Ratings has affirmed the sovereign’s Short-Term Foreign Currency (ST FC) and Short-Term Local Currency (ST LC) Ratings at ‘A3’. The Outlook for the ratings has been revised to Stable from Negative .

RATING RATIONALE

The downgr ade of the ratings reflects CI Ratings’ expectation that Oman’s public and external debt will increase substantially over the forecast horizon due to large deficits in the government budget and the curren t account. Furthermore, CI considers the government’s fiscal consolidation measures to be…