Six?months?after the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was surprisingly downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, the international ratings agency has again lowered the bank’s top rating by a notch.
In a statement issued from?New York late Wednesday, S&P said it had lowered its long-term foreign currency issuer credit rating on the CDB to “AA” from “AA+” and given the bank a negative outlook, but it affirmed its “A-1+” short-term foreign currency rating.
S&P’s move followed a review of the CDB under its revised criteria for multilateral lending institutions, and it said the bank’s negative outlook declining from stable reflected rising embedded risks in the CDB’s public sector loan portfolio.
“The development bank’s strong business profile is anchored by its role as a prominent lender to Caribbean governments and its historical capacity to lend countercyclically through the credit cycle in support of its public policy mandate,” said S& P’s credit analyst Kelli Bissett.
