Despite the dark clouds gathering over Korea’s economy, its sovereign ratings are at the highest levels on record, data shows.

Standard & Poor’s, one of the world’s big three credit ratings agencies, on Wednesday decided to maintain Korea’s rating at AA-, the fourth highest level in its evaluation scheme, with an outlook of “stable.” A stable outlook means the rating is most likely to stay at the same level for the time being.

An AA-, the highest rating given to Korea, is where the country was before the Asian financial crisis struck the country in 1997, greatly damaging its creditworthiness. 

Korea is rated Aa2 by Moody’s, the third highest on the agency’s ratings scale and an unprecedented level for the country. 

On Fitch’s scale, Korea is at AA-, the fourth highest and the level last given to Korea before the financial crisis.

Sovereign credit ratings measure the risk of investing in countries. With the world economy facing strong headwinds, many countries, particularly those in the developing world, suffered ratings downgrades in the past year.