RIYADH – Saudi Arabia’s economy faces yet another setback from the topfinancial institution after the deadly drone attacks against Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s credit rating has been cut amid increased risk of attacks onits oil facilities, a further blow to a government led by an ambitiousyoung prince who seeks to modernize the economy and diversify it away fromoil.
Rating agency Fitch said on Monday that it had downgraded Saudi Arabia’scredit rating to A from A+ following September 14 attacks by Yemen’smilitia-led government which seriously affected crude production in thekingdom.
“We have revised our assessment of the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia’seconomic infrastructure to regional military threats as a result of themost recent attack,” Fitch said.
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“Although oil production was restored fully by end-September, we believethat there is a risk of further attacks on Saudi Arabia, which could resultin economic damage,” it said.
The agency insisted that a lower rating for Saudi Arabia’s economicposition was a product of the kingdom’s foreign policy which many believehas fueled tensions in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf region.
