Moody's Investors Service has assigned a definitive Baa1 rating to the Oman government's US dollar bond issuance. The issuance consist of two tranches – USD1bn due in 2021 and USD1.5bn due in 2026 – marking the first international bond issuance by the sovereign since 1997. Moody's said the definitive rating for these debt obligations follows the provisional rating assigned on 3 June. Although Moody's expects Oman's government debt to rise to 33% of GDP by 2017 from less than 5% at the onset of the oil price shock in 2014, Oman's fiscal buffers, which the rating agency estimates at around 85 per cent of GDP in 2015, will provide support through the process of fiscal and external adjustment. Moody's, last month, downgraded Oman's long-term government issuer rating to Baa1 from A3 and assigned a stable outlook. (Muscat Daily)