The territory’s credit rating recently received a welcome upgrade from an influential financial analyst.
Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited, known as CariCRIS, increased the territory’s ranking from CariA, which is known as a good rating, to CariAA, the level just below the highest possible score of CariAAA.
Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley leaped on the adjustment as a vote of confidence in the Virgin Islands.
“Our territory’s economic fundamentals remain strong, demonstrating the resilience of our people, our governance practices and the building of a sustainable nation,” he said.
He added that the territory is now ahead of Caribbean rivals.
“The notched-up regional scale ratings indicate that the Virgin Islands was adjudged at a higher level of creditworthiness compared to its regional counterparts,” he said.
The premier claimed that the positive ranking was due to the territory’s “sustainable economic development.”
“The Virgin Islands boasts a high [gross domestic product] per capita, driven by a robust and growing tourism industry and a stable financial services sector,” he said. “The government’s ability to maintain this positive credit rating, despite global economic challenges and other international pressures, underscores its commitment to responsible economic stewardship.”
Mr. Wheatley said that United Kingdom support and the VI government’s “strong economical fundamentals” had also been factors in the showing.
VI-based asset-recovery lawyer Martin Kenney agreed that the rating is good news, but he also cautioned that it could be due in part to factors that may hold the territory back.
“The sound fiscal position of the BVI government may in part be due to the relative lack of the government’s ability to borrow capital easily,” he said.
Mr. Kenney added that the VI has a comparatively low debt level because successive governments have “played with a conservative fiscal bat.”
“Borrowings have, as a general rule, been very small as a proportion of local gross domestic product when juxtaposed against other nations’ balance sheets,” he said.
The territory, he added, had a markedly low debt yield compared with major northern neighbours.
“At the end of 2024, the BVI government debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 9.3 percent,” he said. “In contrast, in the US it stood at 124 percent and in Canada at 106 percent in December 2024.”
British Caribbean News
