Mubasher: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on the Sultanate of Oman to 'BBB+' from 'A-'. The outlook is negative. S&P affirmed the short-term ratings at 'A-2'.
“At the same time, we revised our transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment on Oman to 'A-' from 'A'. We project a sharp increase in Oman's general government and current account deficits over 2015-2018, and we expect that trend growth in real per capita GDP will remain materially below that of peers. These factors were included inthe downside scenario of our previous review and we have therefore lowered our long-term ratings on Oman to 'BBB+'.
“Since our review in May, we have lowered our Brent oil price assumptions to average $63 per barrel (/bbl) in 2016-2018 from $72/bbl (Omani crude typically trades at a discount to Brent of about $5). This shift in our assumptions alongside the much weaker-than-expected fiscal and external data outturns over the first half of 2015, have led us to materially revise our key credit metrics for Oman for 2015-2018,” said S&P.
