In a release published on January 29, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) announced it has downgraded Gabon’s long term sovereign credit rating in foreign and local currencies to “B” with a stable outlook from “B+”.

S&P also gave a “B” to the country’s short term sovereign credit rating in foreign and local currencies.

The agency said the downgrading was mainly due to the slump in oil price and forecast fall in crude production.

“We expect the growth of real GDP to slow down while remaining at 4.5% average from 2016 to 2019, mainly because of low oil price and continued fall in production of crude, which should decrease 7% in 2016-2017 as existing oil fields reach maturity,” the agency said recalling that oil contributes to almost 40% of state’s earnings, 80% of export and 20%-30% of GDP.

S&P expects current account deficit to be around 3.8% of GDP in 2016 and remain at that level in 2017 since deterioration resulting from oil price slump should be compensated by decrease in volume of imports.

The rating agency moreover explained that stable outlook which it gave Gabon was due to projected decrease in budget deficit over the next years and the implementation of measures by authorities to overcome previous shortcomings in terms of debt management.