S&P, the in­ter­na­tion­al rat­ing agency, has con­firmed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cred­it rat­ing at BBB-, and brought its out­look from neg­a­tive to sta­ble.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of Fi­nance, this new rat­ing which was is­sued on 21 Ju­ly 2022, is “an In­vest­ment Grade rat­ing re­flec­tive of the cred­it strength of the coun­try”, and notes that the “sta­ble” out­look comes “in light of the re­cent and prospec­tive de­vel­op­ments in the econ­o­my and its re­silien­cy against mul­ti­ple shocks.”

Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Colm Im­bert MP, views the de­vel­op­ment as pos­i­tive.

“This is the first time over the last 15 years that S&P takes a pos­i­tive ac­tion on Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Min­is­ter Im­bert notes the Fi­nance Min­istry state­ment.

“In the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion fac­ing the world econ­o­my, with mul­ti­ple cas­es of eco­nom­ic and fi­nan­cial dis­tress, neg­a­tive rat­ing ac­tions are the norm rather than the ex­cep­tion. This sin­gles out Trinidad and To­ba­go very favourably, both re­gion­al­ly and glob­al­ly. Trinidad and To­ba­go is a safe har­bour for in­vestors,” he stat­ed.

Min­is­ter Im­bert says he is con­fi­dent of more up­grades to come to T&T rat­ing sta­tus.

“This de­ci­sion is a tes­ti­mo­ny to our coun­try’s abil­i­ty to face the COVID cri­sis in a way that pro­tect­ed the pop­u­la­tion and the econ­o­my, and to ex­ceed ex­pec­ta­tions in terms of growth and bud­get re­straint, lead­ing to a de­cline in the pub­lic debt tra­jec­to­ry,” he said.

He added: “Over­all, I am con­fi­dent that the new dy­nam­ics of our cred­it rat­ing will trans­late in­to up­grades as we stay the course of bud­get dis­ci­pline and growth rein­vig­o­ra­tion”.