Fitch Ratings Affirms Malaysia At 'A-' With Stable Outlooks

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed Malaysia's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'A-' and 'A' respectively with stable outlooks. The issue ratings on Malaysia's senior unsecured local-currency bonds are also affirmed at 'A' while the country ceiling is affirmed at 'A' and the short-term foreign-currency IDR at 'F2'. The ratings were driven, among others, by the authorities commitment to fiscal consolidation path, stable ringgit (Malaysia's currency), reserves and stronger economic growth, the ratings agency said in a statement Tuesday. Meanwhile, when asked on Fitch Ratings' move to reaffirm Malaysia's outlook to stable later on Tuesday, Bank Negara Governor (Malaysia's Central Bank Governor) Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said in this period of uncertainty, that was positive as the agency remained unchanged in their ratings despite the challenging environment. "This will demonstrate that Malaysia has a high degree of resilients despite the very challenging environment. "We are actually going to show that policies and measures that we put in place before have positioned us well to withstand the current challenges," she added. --BERNAMA