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A global credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, on Thursday affirmed Nigeria’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at ‘B+’ with a negative outlook.
It said the ‘B+’ rating reflected Nigeria’s position as Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, its net external creditor position, and its well-developed domestic debt markets, balanced against a high level of hydrocarbon dependence, low levels of domestic revenue mobilisation and GDP per capita, and low rankings on governance and business environment indicators.
The negative outlook, according to a statement, reflects uncertainty about the sustainability of the economic growth momentum as the impact of earlier shocks eases and progress on addressing high interest service ratios. Fitch forecasts the GDP growth to accelerate to 2.4 per cent in 2018 as the country continues to climb out of the oil price shock recession that characterised 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.
It noted that the growth turned positive in the second quarter of last year, and the recovery of oil production to 2.1 million barrels per day by the fourth quarter boosted oil sector output, adding that greater foreign exchange availability provided a lift to the non-oil export sectors, particularly agriculture.
Photo Caption: Fitch Rating Logo
