| Kippreport.com

S & P affirms high ratings for Saudi

August 8, 2009 6:06 by Aarti Nagraj

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA-’ long-term and ‘A-1+’ short-term foreign and local currency credit ratings on Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia currently enjoys an exceptional amount of fiscal flexibility to allow it largely to shield the local economy from the full impact of the global recession, primarily through the pursuit of expansionary fiscal policy,” said S&P’s credit analyst Farouk Soussa.

The kingdom’s central government has no external debt and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) had foreign reserves and liquid foreign assets of $438bn at year-end 2008, which is sufficient to cover about 24 months of current account payments, said S&P.

Tags: Saudi, Standard & Poor rating