Fitch, a global credit rating agency, has upgraded the outlook on Nigeria’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to ‘stable’ from negative and affirmed the IDR at ‘B’. The outlook released showed a decrease in the level of uncertainty surrounding the impact of the global pandemic shock on the Nigerian economy.
According to Fitch, the revision of the outlook reflects a decrease in the level of uncertainty surrounding the impact of the global pandemic shock on the Nigerian economy.
It pointed out that oil prices have stabilised, while global funding conditions have eased and domestic restrictions on movement have started to be relaxed.
“Nigeria has navigated external liquidity pressures from the shock through partial exchange rate adjustment combined with de facto capital flow management measures and foreign-currency (FC) restrictions, while disbursement of external official loans has supported the level of international reserves.
It further pointed out that, “the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has achieved progress towards its stated goal of unifying the exchange rate, following a cumulative 19 per cent two-step devaluation of the ‘official’ exchange rate, which is mostly used for the government and the oil sector’s FC transactions.”