Portugal's credit rating is raised one notch by Fitch Ratings, up to A-minus from BBB-plus. The economy is developing strongly, with increased tourism, which is reducing the debt ratio, according to Fitch.

For Portugal, the rating upgrade means that for the first time since the euro crisis forced the country to take emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2011, the country has an A-level credit rating from a leading rating agency.

The rating upgrade comes after Portugal's central bank - part of the European Central Bank (ECB) - raised its growth forecast for this year to 2.7 percent, citing a boost to tourism.

Portugal's national debt as a share of the country's GDP fell to 112.4 percent last year and Fitch now expects the debt ratio to continue to decline to 104.3 percent of GDP this year.

The interest rate on Portugal's ten-year government bond – which peaked at 18 percent when the euro crisis was at its worst in 2012 – is currently around 3.60 percent.

The outlook for Portugal's new higher credit rating is stable, according to Fitch. This means that the rating agency does not expect it to need to be adjusted again in the near future.

The other two major rating agencies, S&P Ratings and Moody's, have credit ratings of BBB-plus and Baa2 respectively on Portugal, although both with positive outlooks.

Source: TT-Bloomberg