Bahrain Mirror: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Bahrain at 'BBB-/A-3'. It also affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency issuer credit ratings on the Central Bank of Bahrain at 'BBB-/A-3'.

Standard & Poor's further stated that "the outlook on both Bahrain and its central bank remains negative," adding in its report that it expects an improvement in Bahrain's financial performance by the support of government measures and additional Saudi support.

This comes days after Fitch Ratings revised the Outlook on Bahrain's National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) and BBK B.S.C. (BBK) to Negative from Stable, while affirming their Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'BBB-', based on its expectation of an increase in the budget deficit to 12.5% of the GDP in 2015, compared to 5.5% in 2014.

Oil price weakness is slowing economic growth and this is taking its toll on bank liquidity and earnings, says Fitch Ratings. It further stated that its 2016 and 2017 forecast oil price is USD55/barrel (Brent).

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