On March 28th 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has revised Cyprus’s outlook to positive from stable and maintained the Cypriot economy’s “B+/B” rating.
The revision of Cyprus’s outlook was due to a faster than previously expected reduction of government debt which resulted in a significant decline in the government debt-to-GDP ratio from 2014.
According to the rating agency, the Cypriot economy will bottom out in 2015 and then slowly strengthen, based on a resilient business services sector, a solid tourism sector, and gradually recovering private consumption. The rating agency estimates that the general government position was -0.3% of GDP, excluding statistical accounting for the costs related to the re-capitalisation of the banking sector. Moreover, the agency expects the general government balance will average about -0.7% of GDP over 2015-2017, compared to their previous projection of -2.4% of GDP.
