The Moody’s international rating agency announced Saturday that Israel will maintain its high A1 credit ranking, despite the economic crisis generated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The rating company, which downgraded Israel’s credit rating forecast from “positive” to “stable” in April, decided to leave the rating at A1 at this stage, despite initial fears in Israel of a downgrade due to the difficult economic situation in the country.

Moody’s maintained the high credit rating despite the financial crisis the world is contending with in wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and even though Israel’s economy is expected to contract by 5.5 percent in 2020 for the first time in over two decades.

However, the Israeli economy is projected to recover and grow by more than 6% by 2021.

This is an achievement for the Israeli economy at a time when the credit rating has been reduced to about 40 countries in recent months.

A country’s credit rating indicates the economic strength and security it will meet in repaying its loans. The high rating enables the government to raise funds under better terms.