BUSINESS DAY TV: Ratings agency S&P looks beyond SA’s scary rhetoric
Gardner Rusike of Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings discusses the decision to keep SA’s ratings the same, and why SA is not necessarily caught in a low-growth trap
Gardner Rusike is a sovereign analyst at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings. BUSINESS DAY TV: Standard & Poor’s has kept South Africa’s foreign-currency rating unchanged at BB+ and its local-currency rating at BBB-, both ratings have retained their negative outlook. Joining me on the line with the reasons for today’s decision is Gardner Rusike, he is primary credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings. Gardner … given that you cut our rating shortly after the Cabinet reshuffle in March, was there a possibility that you could have cut again today? GARDNER RUSIKE: We have affirmed the ratings. We raised a couple of risks in April, one of which was that policy continuity would be at risk and we would possibly see weaker fiscal and economic growth outcomes. Starting with policy continuity: since our engagement with government we have seen that at least the fiscal policy framework will remain the same and the government will remain on the fiscal consolidation path. So that is comfor...
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