Overall sovereign creditworthiness in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has broadly stabilized since we published "Middle East and North Africa Sovereign Rating Trends 2018," on Jan. 10, 2018. S&P Global Ratings rates seven of the 13 sovereigns in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the 'BBB' rating category or above (see chart 1; all ratings in this report refer to long-term foreign currency ratings). The average MENA sovereign rating has broadly stabilized at close to 'BBB-' (see chart 2), although the GDP-weighted average is closer to 'BBB'. The gap between the weighted and unweighted average ratings has widened again due to the rebound in oil prices, which supports the GDP of the oil-exporting Gulf Cooperation
