Fitch Maintains Germany's Ratings At 'AAA'

(RTTNews) - Fitch maintained sovereign ratings of Germany with 'stable' outlook, on Friday.

The rating agency said the 'AAA' rating reflects Germany's diversified, high value-added economy, strong institutions and history of sound public debt management.

A large structural current account surplus, above 7 percent of GDP since 2014, supports the country's net external creditor position, the agency said.

Fitch noted that government debt, at 68 percent of GDP in 2016, was higher than the 'AAA' median of 41 percent but was on a firmly downward path.

Fitch forecasts general government surpluses of 0.6 percent of GDP in 2017 and 0.4 percent in 2018 and 2019, within Germany's Stability Programme targets and only slightly lower than last year's surplus of 0.8 percent.

At the same time, general government debt was forecast to fall to 62.5 percent in 2018.

The agency expects GDP growth this year to match the 2016 rate of 1.9 percent, and moderate to 1.7 percent in 2018 and 1.4 percent in 2019.