Jun 2019 Financial News

Moody's affirms Trinidad & Tobago's Ba1 ratings; maintains stable outlook

Jun 27, 2019

Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has affirmed the Government of Trinidad & Tobago's Ba1 long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings and maintained the stable outlook.

The affirmation of the Ba1 ratings is supported by the following factors:

1.    Sizeable fiscal buffers, balanced against an elevated debt ratio relative to peers
2.    Economic recovery driven by the energy sector, but limited prospects for economic diversification and       institutional constraints limit shock absorption capacity of the economy
3.    Low susceptibility to external financing risks given high reserve coverage of external debt payments

The stable outlook captures Moody's expectations that risks to the rating are balanced. On the upside, prospects of a sustained increase in oil and gas production would materially improve medium-term growth prospects contributing to fiscal consolidation efforts, which would stabilize government debt ratios. Alternatively, institutional constraints continue to limit policy execution and the country's fiscal profile remains vulnerable to future commodity price shocks.

Trinidad & Tobago's long-term foreign-currency bond ceiling remains unchanged at Baa3. The foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling remains at Ba2, while the local-currency bond and bank deposit ceilings remain at Baa2. The short-term foreign-currency bond and bank deposit ceilings remain unchanged at P-3 and Not Prime (NP), respectively.

Source:
Moody's Investors Service
Thursday 27th June, 2019