{"id":44079,"date":"2026-08-29T11:28:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44079"},"modified":"2026-08-29T11:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:28:47","slug":"moodys-revises-nigerias-outlook-to-positive","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/moodys-revises-nigerias-outlook-to-positive\/","title":{"rendered":"Moody&#8217;s revises Nigeria&#8217;s outlook to &#8216;positive&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Moody&#8217;s on Friday revised Nigeria&#8217;s outlook to &#8220;positive&#8221; from &#8220;stable&#8221;, citing the country&#8217;s improved \u200bability to withstand external shocks due \u200cto its increased foreign exchange reserves and stronger-than-expected economic growth.<\/div>\n<div>Africa&#8217;s third-largest economy, a major oil producer, \u200bhas benefitted from a surge in \u200bcrude prices due to the Middle \u2060East conflict and a ramp-up in refined \u200bpetroleum product exports, boosting the country&#8217;s current \u200baccount surplus.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Moody&#8217;s said it expects the West African nation&#8217;s surplus &#8220;to remain sizeable even under materially lower oil \u200bprices.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The World Bank has projected Nigeria&#8217;s \u200beconomic expansion at about 4.2% in 2026, and has said stronger \u200coil \u2060revenue, fiscal discipline and tight monetary policy could help strengthen macroeconomic stability and contain inflation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Moody&#8217;s affirmed the country&#8217;s ratings at &#8220;B3&#8221; as \u200bit reflects \u200bfiscal pressures \u2060arising from limited revenue-generation capacity and weak debt affordability, notwithstanding a \u200bmoderate debt burden.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Peer S&amp;P Global \u200bRatings in \u2060May upgraded Nigeria&#8217;s sovereign rating to &#8220;B&#8221; from &#8220;B-&#8220;, citing sustained structural reforms and improving credit worthiness, \u2060while \u200ba month earlier, Fitch affirmed Nigeria&#8217;s \u200brating at &#8220;B&#8221; with a &#8220;stable outlook&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20589,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-44079","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Moody's said it expects the West African nation's surplus \"to remain sizeable even under materially lower oil \u200bprices.\"","published_date":"","news_description":"Moody's said it expects the West African nation's surplus \"to remain sizeable even under materially lower oil \u200bprices.\"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44079","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44096,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44079\/revisions\/44096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}