01Nov

Standard & Poor’s Malta Credit Rating Upgraded to ‘A-‘

1 November 2016 Acumum Legal & Advisory 40

Standard & Poor’s Credit Rating increases

Malta’s Credit Rating to ‘A-‘

First Increase in 20 years

Malta’s Economy Predicted to increase 25%
Influx of Foreign Workers a Contributing Factor

Continuing Malta’s unprecedented and unmatched growth within the EU, Standard & Poor’s has raised Malta’s long-term rating to ‘A-‘, predicting that the economy will continue to grow by an average of 3 per cent a year until 2019.

The agency raised its long-term sovereign credit ratings on Malta to ‘A-‘ from ‘BBB+’. The upgrade reflected what S&P called “Malta’s improved credit metrics”, including:

Strong real GDP growth
Deficits below 1 per cent for the 2016-19 period
Durable current account surpluses

Malta’s outlook remains stable, reflecting S&P’s view that:

the upside potential of Malta’s economic and fiscal performance is counterbalanced by downside risks related to Brexit, external flows, and the structure of the financial sector.”

Malta’s short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rating remained stable at ‘A-2’.

23Feb

Malta Credit Rating Stable – Positive

23 February 2016 Acumum Legal & Advisory 41

Below is the most recent Malta credit rating assigned by the three largest credit rating agencies; Fitch, Moody’s, as well as Standard & Poor’s:

Rating Agency	Long-term	Short-term	Outlook	Last updated
Fitch	A	F1	Stable	20/02/2016
Moody’s	A3	n/a	Stable	28/10/2014
Standard & Poor’s	BBB+	A-2	Positive	08/01/2016

Credit-rating agencies issue credit-worthiness opinions based on objective analytical methodologies and are intended to assist in overcoming information mismatches between issuers of debt securities (international financial institutions, sovereigns, public and private corporate sector) and investors. Credit-ratings are important for the rated entities/countries as they generally affect their cost of borrowing.

Links to the above ratings can be found here:

Fitch | Moody’s | Standard & Poor’s