Capital Intelligence (CI) has downgraded Oman's long-term foreign currency and local currency ratings to A- from A and its short-term foreign and local currency ratings to A2 from A1. At the same time, the outlook for the sultanate's sovereign ratings has been revised to 'negative' from 'stable', CI said on Friday. “The downgrade of the ratings and the revision of the outlook, reflect weaker-than-expected fiscal and external outturns for the first ten months of 2015, as well as CI's expectation that a prolonged period of low hydrocarbon prices will - in the absence of significant fiscal adjustment - likely result in the steady erosion of the country's credit fundamentals over the intermediate term,” the credit ratings agency said in a statement on its website. (Muscat Daily)