The only credit rating agency to still rate SA’s sovereign credit rating above junk, Moody’s, looks likely to give this country a further downgrade in December. Moody’s, which on June 9 cut SA’s sovereign credit rating to Baa3 with a negative outlook, issued a downbeat commentary on SA’s economic prospects on Monday. The ratings agency revised its forecast of SA’s economic growth down to 0.8% from 1.1% for 2017 when it issued the credit rating downgrade. Its report — Steep Decline in SA’s Business Confidence is a Setback to Growth Recovery — indicated this lower forecast may still be too optimistic "without improved trust in policymaking". On June 14, a Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) sponsored business confidence index by Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research found business confidence in the second quarter had fallen 11 points to 29, the lowest since 2009. "Persistently low business confidence reflects the ongoing uncertainty about future political leadership in the ANC a...
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