Moody’s on 5 March became the last of the big three credit ratings agencies to downgrade Oman into ‘junk’ territory. The agency now rates Oman’s long-term debt as ‘Ba1’ with a negative outlook down from Baa3 (negative outlook), the lowest investment grade. S&P was the first agency to afford Oman a sub-investment rating in late 2017 (MEES, 24 November 2017); Fitch followed suit at the end of 2018 (MEES, 21 December 2018).
Moody’s says the “key driver” of its downgrade is the “expectation that the scope for fiscal consolidation will remain more significantly constrained by the government’s economic and social stability objectives” which will “perpetuate dependence on steady inflows of external financing.” (CONTINUED - 154 WORDS)