TOP US credit-worthiness agency, Standard & Poor's (S&P), yesterday moved its outlook on the Jamaican economy from stable to positive.
The "B" credit issue rating for the country's foreign currency debt was unchanged and remains at least a grade below the previous rating by rival agency Moody's Investor Service.
S&P said it switched its outlook rating to positive largely as a result of the "convergence" of views the Government now had with multilateral agencies, which are providing US$325 million to help finance the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC). Also, it lauded tight fiscal management.
Last week Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance Minister, said the World Bank had agreed a US$75-million loan, the first phase of a US$150-million package to help FINSAC strengthen the ailing sector. Also, the Government has received the first US$75-million tranche of a similar US$150-million FINSAC package from the Inter-American Development Bank and is to get another US$25 million from the Caribbean Development Bank.
S&P cautioned that Jamaica's gross debt burden, at more than 140 per cent "is one of the highest for rated sovereigns, exceeded only by Lebanon". It added that the burden could fall to 130 per cent by the end of next and below 100 per cent over the next four years.
The maintained rating puts the country below Trinidad and Tobago, which has a "BBB-" grade and other regional players.
Jamaica is among nine countries on S&P's website listing of 80 nations with a long-term foreign debt rating of "B" or lower, alongside Cook Islands, Ecuador, Indonesia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Suriname and Venezuela.
