Fitch Affirms Abu Dhabi’s Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating at AA; Stable Outlook

Abu Dhabi’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) has been affirmed at ‘AA’ by Fitch Ratings (Fitch), with a Stable Outlook.

The affirmation is based on Abu Dhabi’s robust fiscal and external metrics, and high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which are balanced by the country’s high dependence on hydrocarbons, relatively weak governance indicators as well as a developing economic policy framework.

Fitch anticipates that Abu Dhabi’s fiscal balance will fall into a deficit of 5.9% of GDP in 2020 from a 2.1% surplus in 2019, following the COVID-19 pandemic and plummeting oil prices, with both revenue and spending expected to c...