Fitch Ratings upgrades Seychelles to BB- with stable outlook

The Minister of Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan has welcomed the upgrade. (Gerard Larose) 

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Seychelles' credit ratings to 'BB-' with a stable outlook, reflecting the island nation's declining debt and its remaining on track to reduce debt/GDP to around 56 percent by end of 2024.

The new upgrade by Fitch Ratings was issued on Friday, October 21.

In a press release from the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade on Sunday, Minister Naadir Hassan welcomed the upgrade, saying that for the past two years, the government has had its hand full, to get the country's economic and financial situation back on track.

"The road to this recovery, where Seychelles, a small island state, has been a beacon on the world stage has been one full of difficult but responsible fiscal and monetary decisions and actions. The situation we inherited in 2020 was bad, as I have been saying all along, it took courage, braveness and hard work, to have been able to achieve this impressive recovery," he said.

Also rated high on the Fitch Ratings aside from the declining debt is an "Improving External Balance Sheet: Seychelles has reached staff-level agreement on the third review of its $104.6 million Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the IMF."

The reserve accumulation was rated medium, aided by a shrinking current account deficit (CAD), which Fitch forecasts at 6.6 percent of GDP in 2022 and on average 3.7 percent in 2023-2024.

Hassan said that the strong and impressive economic recovery can only be sustained when responsible decisions and actions are taken.

"As a government, we cannot at any cost, take decisions and actions which will plunge our country into economic chaos and amass huge debts. Our decisions, though tough, have always been for the betterment of Seychelles. Our focus on this economic recovery is to ensure sustainability, in order to guarantee we can as a country build buffers in case of any shocks, which may impact on our country," he added.

Hassan has taken this opportunity to express his appreciation to all Seychelles' partners, who have believed in and supported the decisions and actions of the government, to achieve this recovery.

 "I want to thank all of Seychelles' international partners, who have supported our economic reform programme. I also express my sincere appreciation to all staff of my Ministry and that of the Central Bank of Seychelles, who have worked tirelessly for the past two years to ensure that as a country, our economy recovered from the disastrous impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. I want to also say thank you to all Seychellois who have understood how dire the situation was, and have come together as a nation to fully participate in this recovery," said the minister.

The highest ever Fitch Ratings for Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, was a grade of BB,  in 2019.