Panama Credit-Rating Outlook Raised to Positive at
Moody's
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Moody's Investors Service raised the outlook
on Panama's Baa3 sovereign rating to positive from stable, citing
economic growth prospects and the government's "solid balance
sheet."
An upgrade is likely should the government successfully carry out
its investment plans to support expansion without running
larger-than-expected fiscal deficits, Moody's said in a statement.
Moody's last lifted the Central American nation's foreign-currency
bond ratings from Ba1 on June 9, 2010, taking the ranking to the
lowest investment grade.
Panama's gross domestic product may increase 7.5 percent in 2011
and 6.5 percent in 2012, fueled by growing traffic through the
Panama Canal, a profitable financial system and a burgeoning
tourism sector, Moody's said. Further growth will be supported by
the government's $13.5 billion five-year plan to improve
infrastructure that was started last year and the $5.25 billion
expansion of the Canal, the statement said.
Panama's economy expanded 9.7 percent in the first quarter from a
year earlier, compared with 8.7 percent in the last three months of
2010, the Comptroller General said on June 15. Growth in the three
months through March was the fastest since the period ended June
2008, Bloomberg data show.
Standard & Poor's revised Panama's credit outlook to positive
on July 21 and kept its rating at BBB-, the lowest investment
grade. Fitch Ratings raised the country's ranking to BBB in June,
the second-lowest investment grade.
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