S&P Lifts Qatar Long-Term Rating to AA From AA- - BusinessWeek

Standard & Poor’s raised Qatar’s long-term ratings to AA, the agency’s third highest, from AA-, citing “strengthening fiscal and external balance sheets.”

Qatar’s real per capita gross domestic product will gain 11 percent in 2010 amid rising gas output, S&P said in a statement today. The world’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas aims to increase its capacity to produce the fuel by 43 percent to 77 million tons, with three new production units starting this year.

“Qatar’s economy is weathering the global downturn well, with deflationary pressures and financial sector problems contained by the economic policy flexibility generated by new gas projects,” S&P said in a report issued today.