S&P Global, one of the world’s largest credit ratings agencies, has upgraded its view of Ireland’s creditworthiness to within one level of its top-notch AAA grade for the first time since early 2009.

The firm said on Friday it had raised its stance on the Republic’s long-term local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings to AA+ from AA and restored its ratings outlook to stable from positive.

S&P, which now has the highest rating on Ireland of any of the leading credit agencies, had put a positive outlook on its rating in late 2024, indicating it was predisposed to an upgrade. Analysts at the firm said in January that they aimed to make a decision this year on whether to raise its stance or return the outlook to stable.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages Ireland’s sovereign debt, welcomed the upgrade.

“This is the first upgrade of Ireland’s rating from S&P since May 2023 and is the first time that S&P has rated Ireland at AA+ since 2009,” the agency said in a statement.

S&P also affirmed Ireland’s short-term rating at S&P’s highest level of A-1+.

In making its decision to upgrade, S&P cited several factors including the State’s strong economic and budgetary performance, the strengthening of fiscal buffers, a continued decline in net debt.

It also noted the favourable structure of Government debt, which has long average maturity and the extent to which existing borrowing is at fixed rates.

“Today’s S&P rating upgrade to AA+ is another positive development for Ireland,” said Dave McEvoy, director of funding and debt management at the NTMA. “It reflects positive international investor sentiment and further improvements in Ireland’s debt metrics, with Irish bonds now trading close to core European sovereign issuers.

“This upgrade follows a strong start to our 2026 funding programme,” he added. “We have already issued €6.25 billion of benchmark bonds this year, from a total funding range for the year of €10 billion to €14 billion.”

The world’s leading credit ratings firms stripped Ireland of its prized top credit ratings during the financial crisis, with S&P rival, Moody’s going so far as to downgrade the Republic’s creditworthiness to “junk” status in 2011.

S&P rated Ireland at as low as BBB+, seven levels below AAA, but three steps above “junk”, during the worst of the downturn.

The State has enjoyed a slew of upgrades over the past dozen years, after emerging from an international bailout programme and rapidly lowering its debt burden – relative to the size of the economy – as annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth routinely topped the list of EU members.

Two of the world’s three main credit ratings agencies – Fitch and Morningstar DBRS – currently have an AA stance on Ireland. The rating of Moody’s is AA3, the equivalent of one level lower than its peers.

Credit ratings firms’ actions should theoretically influence borrowing costs for governments and companies, although financial markets are often ahead of the game when it comes to pricing debt.

Irish GDP surged by 12.3 per cent in 2025, the Central Statistics Office said earlier this month, driven a surge of exports in the first quarter. A 23.5 per cent jump in exports was known to be turbocharged by companies seeking to get ahead of expected Trump administration tariffs and, in particular, by US drugmaker Eli Lilly shipping ingredients for a weight-loss and diabetes treatments from Cork.