S&P Global Ratings lowered on February 19th 2021 Cape Verde’s sovereign credit rating to B- from B and assigned a stable outlook. The downgrade reflects the agency's view that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a prolonged effect on Cape Verde's economy, and will leave a large and protracted dent in the country's fiscal and external accounts. S&P estimates Cape Verde's real GDP shrank by 14.9% in 2020 and will take until at least 2024 to recover to 2019 levels, as the abrupt pandemic-related halt in international tourism drags on economic activity. Meantime, the stable outlook balances the expectation of gradual economic recovery and the availability of supportive foreign donor grant and loan facilities, against the risk of lower medium-term economic growth prospects and rising financing pressures as a result of the global pandemic. Fitch's credit rating for Cape Verde was last reported at B- with stable outlook. In general, a credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of Cape Verde thus having a big impact on the country's borrowing costs. This page includes the government debt credit rating for Cape Verde as reported by major credit rating agencies.