Moody’s warning to Ramaphosa: time to act on promises
Ratings agency warns president SA faces downgrade if country fails to boost economic growth
Just as he was basking in the ringing endorsement he got from Goldman Sachs, President Cyril Ramaphosa got a wake-up call from Moody’s Investors Service, which warned it might downgrade the country’s debt if he does not deliver promised reforms. In a late-night report on Wednesday, the last major ratings agency that has SA on investment grade warned the country’s debt is set to balloon well above levels forecast by the government and that a failure to boost growth, curtail spending and improve tax collection will "put downward pressure on the country’s rating". "On the surface of it, this move would seem to tilt the prospects for SA’s credit rating in a downward direction, though Moody’s would be likely to wait and see how the reform programme progresses before making a firm decision," Peter Worthington, a senior economist at Absa, said. Including the government’s guarantees for debt incurred by Eskom, which analysts have described as the biggest single risk to the economy, Moody’s ...
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