Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has today upgraded the Government of Vietnam's long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Ba2 from Ba3 and changed the outlook to stable from positive, according to an annoucement on September 6 of the Finance Ministry.
The upgrade to Ba2 reflects Vietnam's growing economic strengths relative to peers and greater resilience to external macroeconomic shocks that are indicative of improved policy effectiveness, and which Moody's expects to continue as the economy benefits from supply chain reconfiguration, export diversification and continued inbound investment in manufacturing.
The rating also reflects a sounder fiscal footing backed by contained borrowing costs, a conservative approach to fiscal policy and improved government liquidity, driven by the ongoing transition from external concessional borrowing toward longer-dated, low-cost domestic market financing, said the ministry.
Amid complicated developments in the world in the past eight months, Vietnam is the only in Asia-Pacific and one of the four countries globally to have ratings upgraded by Moody’s since early this year.