Fitch Ratings has recalibrated Sri Lanka’s National Rating Scale to mirror shifts in the relative creditworthiness of issuers operating within the country. The move follows the agency’s decision on September 22, 2026, to upgrade Sri Lanka’s sovereign Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from ‘CCC+’ to ‘B-’ with a Stable Outlook.
The recalibration is expected to alter credit ratings for several domestic issuers, with Fitch stating that any resulting rating revisions will be announced shortly. The agency highlighted that national scale ratings are structured to evaluate and rank domestic issuers based on their relative credit risk within the local market, offering institutional and retail investors a clear measure to evaluate differing risk tiers.
Key Developments
- Recalibration aligns Sri Lanka’s national scale with the sovereign Long-Term Local-Currency IDR upgrade to ‘B-‘ from ‘CCC+’ on September 22, 2026.
- Fitch announced that issuer-specific rating adjustments stemming from this recalibration will be published shortly.
- National ratings maintain the unique identifier ‘(lka)’ to indicate they reflect relative domestic credit standing.
- Fitch clarified that national scale ratings cannot be directly compared with international scale ratings or the national scales of other jurisdictions.
Under the Fitch system, Sri Lanka’s national scale ratings carry the identifier ‘(lka)’ to distinguish them from standard international rating metrics. Because these assessments solely measure relative standing within a single market, they operate independently and cannot be compared directly to international ratings or the national scales maintained in other jurisdictions.