Global credit rating agency S&P Global has maintained South Korea’s long-term sovereign rating at AA with a stable outlook. 

In its outlook report released on Tuesday, in which the system's third highest rating has remained unchanged for Asia’s fourth largest economy since August of 2016, the appraiser said the country will likely grow stronger than most other high-income countries on average in the next three to five years. 

While citing prudent policy decisions, solid fiscal conditions and high monetary flexibility as among other notable factors behind the unchanged rating, S&P also assessed geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula will unlikely grow to the point of hurting its fundamentals. 

It forecast South Korea’s fiscal deficit will be curtailed in two years, turning its fiscal balance into a surplus in 2024. 

The average growth of the nation’s real gross domestic product per capita will be two-point-four percent between this year and 2025, lifting the per capita GDP from 34-thousand dollars to 40-thousand dollars, it said.