Rating agency Fitch has obtained a license to operate in Saudi Arabia, the country's capital markets regulator said on Monday, as the kingdom tries to bolster its debt market. The Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement it has licensed Fitch Australia Pty Ltd to conduct credit rating activities in the country. In late 2016, CMA approved a license for Standard & Poor's, which became the first foreign credit agency to obtain such permission. Las month, Fitch Ratings downgraded the sovereign rating of Saudi Arabia to ‘A+' from ‘AA-‘, making Fitch the last of the big three international rating companies to remove the Kingdom from the ‘AA' rating category. In their press release announcing the decision, Fitch said "the downgrade of Saudi Arabia›s Long-Term IDRs reflects the continued deterioration of public and external balance sheets, the significantly wider-than-expected fiscal deficit in 2016, and continued doubts about the extent to which the government›s ambitious reform program can be implemented." — Agencies
