“Most rated Caribbean sovereigns will likely weather the effects of a bad hurricane season”, advises the global rating agency Standard and Poor’s in their bulletin issued on 30th October 2017.
In the bulletin (see attached) S & P outlines that out of their rated Caribbean island sovereigns, most escaped unscathed.
However, several were not so lucky; some even were affected twice. These included:
• Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI; BBB+/Positive/A-2)
• Montserrat (BBB-/Stable/A-3)
• The Bahamas (BB+/Stable/B)
• Dominican Republic (BB-/Stable/B).
Currently the TCI maintains a BBB+ sovereign rating, which is a strong factor in attracting foreign direct investment to TCI and building confidence amongst its existing business community.
In the recently issued bulletin S & P advises that TCI has a strong fiscal position which will allow the territory to absorb the cost of the hurricanes without significantly affecting the credit quality. S& P further stated that as a result of TCI not having any outstanding commercial bonds in the market, and its gross debt being less than 3.4% of GDP, they were of the opinion, these factors provide TCI with ample flexibility to respond adequately to the hurricane's aftermath.
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