S&P Global Ratings has reaffirmed Trinidad and Tobago’s investment-grade credit rating of BBB-, the Ministry of Finance announced Wednesday, with the decision preserving the country’s investment-grade standing while recognising its favourable external position and substantial national assets, including the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF).
The Government acknowledged that S&P has maintained a negative outlook on the rating, which it said reflects the consequences of years of weak economic growth, declining fiscal and external buffers, insufficient diversification and continued dependence on volatile energy revenues, problems it described as deep-rooted and inherited by the current administration.
The Ministry noted that the historical record shows Trinidad and Tobago held an A long-term sovereign credit rating from S&P in December 2015. That rating was subsequently lowered to A- in 2016, BBB+ in 2017, BBB in 2019, and BBB- in 2020, meaning the country entered 2025 with a significantly weaker credit rating, reduced fiscal space, and an economy that had endured years of stagnation and missed opportunities, according to the release.
Minister of Finance the Honourable Davendranath Tancoo said the reaffirmation gives the country an important foundation to build on.
“When the former administration assumed office in 2015, Trinidad and Tobago held an A credit rating. Over the years that followed, it presided over a series of downgrades that eventually took the country to BBB-,” Tancoo said. “That decline reflected years of weak growth, inadequate diversification, rising debt and the steady erosion of the national buffers built to protect our people.”
He said the reaffirmed rating “preserves an essential foundation for rebuilding investor confidence, mobilising new investment and returning the economy to sustainable growth.”
Minister Tancoo added that S&P had identified a clear route to an improved outlook, citing stronger fiscal performance, better long-term growth and continued protection of the country’s external position as priorities. “These are precisely the priorities being pursued by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Administration,” he said.
“Our country now has a clear opportunity to move beyond the failures of the past decade and towards renewed confidence, sustainable growth and national development,” the Minister said.