{"id":42669,"date":"2026-08-15T11:26:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42669"},"modified":"2026-08-15T11:26:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:26:41","slug":"fitch-upgrades-republic-of-congos-local-currency-rating-on-lower-refinancing-risks","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fitch-upgrades-republic-of-congos-local-currency-rating-on-lower-refinancing-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitch upgrades Republic of Congo&#8217;s local-currency rating on lower refinancing risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Global ratings agency Fitch on Friday upgraded the Republic of Congo&#8217;s long-term local-currency rating to &#8220;CCC+&#8221; from &#8220;CCC&#8221; and affirmed its foreign-currency rating, citing improved regional \u200cfinancing conditions and a smoother debt repayment profile.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The move comes as Brazzaville, under President Denis Sassou Nguesso, has been working to consolidate peace and diversify the \u2060economy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nguesso won a tightly controlled election in March, securing more than 94% of the vote to extend his nearly 42 years in power.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fitch said the rating is supported by reduced near-term rollover risks, improving growth prospects driven by oil and gas sector expansion, as \u200cwell \u2060as steadily declining government debt and fiscal surpluses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The agency expects government debt to fall to 80.9% of gross domestic product in 2026 from 92.1% at the \u2060end of 2025, supported by fiscal surpluses and strong nominal growth.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, the agency held the country in \u2060junk territory, citing weak public financial management, high oil dependence and recurrent arrears \u2060as continuing constraints on the rating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fitch affirmed the country&#8217;s long-term foreign-currency rating at &#8220;CCC+&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42670,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-42669","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Fitch upgraded the Republic of Congo's long-term local-currency rating","published_date":"2026-08-15 09:33:35","news_description":"Fitch upgraded the Republic of Congo's long-term local-currency rating","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42671,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42669\/revisions\/42671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}