{"id":948869,"date":"2026-11-01T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T15:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948869\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T15:38:11","slug":"arab-news-fitch-affirms-abu-dhabi-at-aa-with-stable-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948869\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab News | Fitch affirms Abu Dhabi at \u2018AA\u2019 with stable outlook\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\">RIYADH: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Abu Dhabi\u2019s long-term issuer default ratings at \u201cAA\u201d with a stable outlook, citing the emirate\u2019s high gross domestic product per capita, very strong fiscal and external metrics, and low government debt. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The ratings agency said Abu Dhabi\u2019s government debt remains among the lowest of Fitch-rated sovereigns, while its sovereign net foreign assets rank among the highest. However, the rating is constrained by the emirate\u2019s heavy reliance on hydrocarbons, a relatively weak but improving economic policy framework, geopolitical risks and governance indicators that lag behind those of its peers, according to the agency.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Abu Dhabi economy expands on non-oil growth \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Abu Dhabi\u2019s economic expansion has been supported by growth in non-oil activities. The emirate\u2019s GDP grew 7.7 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2025 to 325.7 billion dirhams ($88.7 billion), while its non-oil economy expanded 7.6 percent, accounting for 54 percent of total output, according to the Statistics Centre \u2013 Abu Dhabi. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The broader UAE economy is also expected to maintain its growth momentum, with the International Monetary Fund projecting real GDP growth of 7.7 percent in 2027 in its October 2026 projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The figures come as the US-Iran war adds geopolitical and economic uncertainty across the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The newly released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fitchratings.com\/research\/sovereigns\/fitch-affirms-abu-dhabi-at-aa-outlook-stable-30-10-2026\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a> said: \u201cThe Stable Outlook reflects the resilience of oil export revenue during the US-Iran war, which is allowing a continued increase in fiscal and external buffers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Key rating drivers\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Fitch said Abu Dhabi\u2019s rating is supported by its exceptionally strong fiscal and external position, including low government debt, substantial sovereign net foreign assets, projected budget surpluses and resilient oil revenues. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The agency estimated the emirate\u2019s sovereign net foreign assets at 300 percent of GDP at the end of 2025, while government debt stood at 19.3 percent of GDP. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>However, the rating is constrained by the emirate\u2019s reliance on hydrocarbons, geopolitical risks, contingent liabilities linked to government-related entities and a relatively weak, though improving, economic policy framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">UAE\u2019s country ceiling to apply to Abu Dhabi \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Fitch is withdrawing Abu Dhabi\u2019s separate Country Ceiling, as it will no longer maintain an individual ceiling for the emirate. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The UAE\u2019s Country Ceiling, currently rated \u201cAA+\u201d, will continue to apply to Abu Dhabi. The agency added that the withdrawal will not affect the applicable Country Ceiling for issuers based in Abu Dhabi, as the emirate\u2019s ceiling had previously been aligned with that of the UAE.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIYADH: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Abu Dhabi\u2019s long-term issuer default ratings at \u201cAA\u201d with a stable outlook, citing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[944,64,63,99,164,39761,359894,15324,21542],"class_list":["post-948869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-fitch-ratings","tag-hydrocarbons","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-uae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}