Global ratings agency Standard & Poor's raised Sri Lanka's credit rating on Tuesday, as the island nation's economy booms after the end of a 37-year civil war. S&P raised its rating for Sri Lanka's sovereign debt to "B plus" from "B", which is still in junk territory four notches below investment grade but marks an improvement over 12 months.
S&P credit analyst Agost Benard said in a statement that Sri Lanka's public finances were on the mend after a reserves crisis led to a 2.6-billion-dollar bailout package from the International Monetary Fund last year. "The rating upgrade reflects... that the government's planned revenue reforms will improve public finances, such that fiscal deficits and public debt will decline again in a sustainable manner," Benard said. Sri Lanka's reserves, which fell just under a billion dollars during the final months of the war in early 2009, is on track to top a record six billion dollars by end December, according to central bank figures.