Cairo-Mubasher: Standards & Poor’s (S&P) on Wednesday downgraded the credit ratings of three GCC countries -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.
Saudi Arabia's credit rating was cut two levels to ‘A-‘ from ‘A+’, and that of Bahrain was also lowered two levels to ‘BB’ from ‘BBB-’. In addition, Oman’s rating was downgraded to ‘BBB-’ from ‘BBB+’.
The agency attributed the downgrade to the negative impact of falling oil prices on the financial indicators of these countries, especially as oil make up the biggest portion of their income resources.
S&P also downgraded the ratings of other oil-producing countries such as Brazil and Kazakhstan.
