Fitch keeps India rating unchanged at 'BBB-' with a stable outlook

New Delhi: Rating agency Fitch on Thursday kept India's sovereign rating unchanged at 'BBB-', the lowest investment grade, with stable outlook.

In April too, Fitch kept India's rating unchanged at 'BBB-', with stable outlook. The rating was assigned to the country 12 years ago.

Fitch had last upgraded the rating from 'BB+' to 'BBB-' with stable outlook on August 1, 2006. Later, it changed the outlook to negative in 2012 and then again to stable in the following year, though it kept the rating unchanged at the lowest investment grade.

In a statement, Fitch said it expects India's real GDP growth to rise to 7.8 percent in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, from 6.7 percent in FY2017-18.

But for the following two financial years, it said, the growth may decelerate to 7.3 percent due to "downside risks from tightening financial conditions, weak financial-sector balance sheets and high international oil prices".

"Risks to the macroeconomic outlook are significant, and include a drop in credit growth, resulting from further problems in the banking or shadow-banking sector," it said.

With PTI Inputs