The Jamaica government has welcomed the upgrade on the island's long term foreign currency rating saying it remains committed to improving the island's fiscal and debt operations and further facilitating economic recovery and positive growth.
The Ministry of Finance and Public service in a statement said the US-based Fitch Ratings has upgraded Jamaica's long term foreign currency and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to 'B-' from CCC. The rating agency also raised the short-term foreign currency rating from C to 'B' and the Country Ceiling from B- to 'B.'
The outlook was also upgraded to "Stable". Fitch Ratings said the new ratings were supported by the reduced financing risks due to fiscal consolidation and the lengthening of domestic debt repayments, as well as the successful completion of two reviews under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and the satisfaction of all the quantitative targets and structural benchmarks for the third review.
The US-based rating agency said that the new upgrade was also due to the preservation of broad macroeconomic and financial stability and the declining path of Jamaica's public debt/gross domestic product (GDP) due to the National Debt Exchange executed in February 2013, coupled with an increase in primary surpluses and modest economic recovery.
CANA