Fitch ponders ratings rise for Portugal

The US ratings agency Fitch, which is currently examining Portuguese debt, is considering increasing Portugal’s rating.

Fitch analysts are forecasting the outlook for Portuguese debt to pass from “Stable” – as it currently stands – to “Positive” although it considers that Portugal may not still have the right conditions to make the rating rise.
Portugal’s ratings from the two main ratings agencies has classified the country’s capacity to service and pay off its debts as follows: Moody’s Baa3 (Stable), Fitch BBB (Stable), Standard & Poor’s BBB (Stable) and DBRS BBB (Positive)
“We are not ruling out a rating rise for Portuguese debt to BBB+ (compared to the current BBB). However, the main scenario for us is for an improvement in Outlook to “Positive” which would open the door to an eventual upward review in November after the elections,” states a research team from Bankinter.
Fitch increased Portugal’s ratings from “Junk” status to BBB in terms of investment quality in December 2017. In the two subsequent evaluations it kept the ranking unaltered with a “Stable” outlook.
Since the last review in November, the Portuguese economy closed the year with growth of 2.1%.
In the first quarter of 2019, Portugal’s GDP grew 0.5% in relation to the end of 2018 which led to an increase of 1.8% in relation to the same period of the previous year.