Moody’s lowers Oman credit rating, outlook

CAIRO – 29 July 2017: Moody's Investors Service downgraded Oman’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings to Baa2 from Baa1, pushing the outlook down to negative from stable, according to a Friday report.

The downgrading came as Moody’s assessed the Arab Gulf sultanate’s actions to address structural vulnerabilities that occurred as a result of low oil prices and described them as “limited than expected”, holding a negative impact on fiscal and external imbalances.

“The negative outlook reflects Moody's view that despite a number of credit strengths the balance of risks to the Baa2 rating are skewed to the downside,” Moody’s said in the report.

Moreover, Oman's long-term foreign currency bond ceiling was reduced to Baa1 from A3 and its long-term foreign currency bank deposit ceiling was lowered to Baa2 from Baa1.

While Oman's long-term local currency country risk ceilings were lowered as well toBaa1 from A3, Oman’s short-term foreign-currency bond and deposit ceilings remain unchanged at Prime-2.