Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its A/A-1 long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the emirate of Sharjah. The outlook is stable.
The affirmation primarily reflects the solid growth in Sharjah’s GDP per capita. “We also factor in the advantages of membership in the UAE, which include low external risks for Sharjah. We believe that, under certain circumstances, Sharjah would receive extraordinary financial support from the UAE if needed. We do not currently anticipate that such a need will arise, however,” S&P said in a statement.
Sharjah is the third-largest member of the UAE in terms of population, GDP, and geographic area. It has approximately 10 per cent of the UAE’s total population and accounted for about five per cent of the UAE’s GDP for 2013, according to S&P.
