Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has affirmed its ‘A/A—1’ long-term and short-term local and foreign currency rating for Oman, removing the country from 'Credit Watch' with negative implications, where they were placed on March 7.

The outlook is negative.

“Oman’s transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment remains ‘AA-’. We have also removed the government-supported ratings on Oman Power and Water Procurement Co SAOC (OPWP) from Credit Watch with negative implications. The outlook on OPWP is negative,” it said in a statement.

“We have removed the ratings from CreditWatch Negative in light of immediate political pressures easing. Aside from an isolated killing in Sohar, the protests were largely peaceful, and the quick response of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said to protestor demands appears to have eased tensions,” S&P said.

“The negative outlook reflects our view of the likelihood of a downgrade if political tensions heighten due to renewed protests in response to shortfalls or delays in addressing popular demands. The ratings could also come under downward pressure if fiscal performance weakens in the absence of revenue-enhancing measures outside the oil sector,” it added in the statement.

Meanwhile, S&P has raised its local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on the state of Kuwait to ‘AA’ from ‘AA-’.

“The short-term ratings were affirmed at ‘A-1+’ The outlook is stable. The transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment, which reflects Standard & Poor’s view of the likelihood of the sovereign (or central bank) restricting non-sovereign access to foreign exchange needed for debt service, is affirmed at ‘AA+’,” it said.

It also affirmed its long and short-term local and foreign currency sovereign credit rating for the Kingdom of Bahrain at ‘BBB/A-3’.

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