ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: Retail sales data to give clue on first quarter GDP growth
Moody’s ratings agency could eclipse retail sales growth numbers
It is going to be another relatively quiet week on the data front, with retail-trade sales likely to dominate the economic news unless Moody’s Investors Service announces its expected ratings action. Moody’s has SA’s local and foreign currency ratings ranked two notches above speculative (junk) status on Baa2. With the ratings agency having put SA on notice for a possible downgrade by the end of June, the market expectation is for both SA’s local and foreign currency ratings to be cut by one notch any day now. Fears that a downgrade from Moody’s was imminent caused the rand to weaken last week. Barring any announcements from Moody’s, retail sales growth on Wednesday will be the major domestic data release of the week. It will provide a further piece of the puzzle as to what SA can expect from first-quarter GDP growth figures, which are due out on June 6. Several economists have warned that the country might have experienced the second successive quarter of negative growth, which wou...
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