Emerging markets rating agency Capital Intelligence has upgraded the long-term foreign currency rating of Qatar National Bank (QNB), Qatar’s largest bank, to A- from BBB+. The upgrade was the result of the increase in the long-term foreign currency rating of the state of Qatar to A-.
This new sovereign ceiling reflects Qatar's substantial hydrocarbon wealth, considerable export potential and improvements in economic management as well as the principal constraints of the country's heavy foreign debt burden, large debt servicing obligations and the vulnerability of fiscal and external accounts to terms of trade shocks.
The agency commented that QNB’s short-term foreign currency and domestic strength ratings were maintained at A2 and A- respectively with a stable outlook. — (menareport.com)
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