PODGORICA (Montenegro), September 16 (SeeNews) – Standard & Poor's (S&P) has affirmed Montenegro's B+/B credit ratings, with a stable outlook, the Montenegrin finance ministry said.
S&P has highlighted the significant results achieved in the tourism and energy sectors, as well as the significant inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI), the finance ministry said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
The tourism sector's performance supported real economic growth of about 5% in 2018, with the trend continuing in 2019 as tourist arrivals increased by 20% in the first half of this year, the ministry said.
The ratings agency estimates that the FDI into Montenegro will average around 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually over the next four years, mainly concentrated in the real estate, hotel and energy sectors, the ministry noted.
At the same time, S&P welcomes the completion of several important projects in the energy sector, such as the reconstruction and upgrading of power plants, new power generation facilities and the Montenegro-Italy submarine cable.
S&P upgraded in October 2017 the outlook on Montenegro to stable from negative to reflect the government's fiscal consolidation efforts. The ratings and outlook were affirmed in March 2018, September 2018 and March 2019.