Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings revised the Outlook on the State of Qatar’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Positive from Stable and affirmed the IDR at ‘AA-‘.

The rating agency said, in a report, the revision of the Outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that debt to GDP will remain in line with or below the ‘AA’ peer median. The expansion of the North Field will increase the export capacity of the country’s LNG.

Fitch’s report noted that Qatar’s ‘AA-‘ ratings are supported by large sovereign net foreign assets, one of the world’s highest ratios of GDP per capita and a flexible public finance structure.

Fitch forecast Qatar’s general government (GG) budget surplus at about 10% of GDP in 2023, compared to 13% in 2022.

The report said that Qatar Central Bank’s measures contributed to reducing banks’ dependence on foreign financing from $197 billion in 2021 to $186 billion in 2022.

Source: Qatar News Agency