DEC
2020
Agencies highlight the Dominican economy’s resilience and the trust placed in measures taken by the current authorities
The rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P Global) ratified the sovereign risk rating for the Dominican Republic at BB-/B in its most recent report, published on Wednesday, December 2nd, of the current year.
With this confirmation, the country maintains its risk classification in line with pre-pandemic levels with the three rating agencies, since Moody’s and Fitch also ratified their ratings in recent months.
S&P Global highlighted that, despite the strong contraction in economic activity in 2020, the diversification of the Dominican economy will allow for a rebound to the high growth the country had experiencied prior to Covid-19.
In fact, the analysts of the reputed agency project that the pandemic’s impact in the country will be transitory, and that consequently the economy will return to a growth of 5% in the 2021-2023 period.
With this ratification, the Dominican Republic enters the select group of countries worldwide that has successfully maintained its credit rating with the three main risk rating agencies.
"Almost 55% of the sovereigns of Latin America and the Caribbean that were evaluated since the beginning of the crisis, in March of this year, have suffered a downgrade in their rating. With the ratification of S&P, we became the second country in the region that, despite having been assigned a negative outlook due to the pandemic, managed to maintain its rating”, said the Finance Minister, Jochi Vicente.
Minister Vicente emphasized that this is an unequivocal sign of the trust placed in the current government to cope with the onslaught of the pandemic and strengthen the country's institutional framework.
The report indicates that the prospects for reforms could improve under the new administration’s firm mandate, citing it as the scenario that would allow the country's rating to improve in the medium term.
