S&P lowers Bangladesh's outlook to negative from stable

Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Boeing 777-3E9ER. Raihan Ahmed. Creative Commons.

(Reuters) - S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday lowered Bangladesh's outlook to negative from stable, citing risks its external liquidity position could deteriorate in the next year, while foreign exchange reserves remain under pressure.

The ratings agency expects the economy to expand between 6-6.4% over the next three years. Bangladesh's GDP growth fell to 6.03% in the financial year ended June 2023.

The South Asian nation is struggling to pay for imported fuel because of a dollar shortage and its dollar reserves have shrunk by more than a third since Russia's invasion of Ukraine to stand at $29.85 billion as of July 19.

"We may lower the ratings on Bangladesh if net external debt or liquidity metrics worsen further, such that narrow net external debt surpasses 100% of current account receipts, or gross external financing needs exceed 100% of current account receipts plus usable reserves," S&P said, affirming the country's sovereign credit rating at BB-.

Bangladesh needs favorable trade and financial flows to stabilize its external settings in the next 12 months, the agency added.