South African bonds were stable on Thursday morning while the rand, which they usually track, was at its best level in a week.On Wednesday, the rand and local bonds gained on positive sentiment after Statistics SA data showed that retail sales for June had grown at an annual rate of 2.9%, surpassing expectations and suggesting that the economy could be emerging from its technical recession. Ratings agency Moody’s released its credit opinion of SA on Wednesday, warning that it would downgrade again if the government did not safeguard the country’s institutional‚ economic and fiscal strength. Moody’s has SA’s ratings at one notch above subinvestment with a negative outlook. It held back from reviewing SA’s rating last week but will review the rating again on November 24.Minutes from the US Federal Reserve last policy meeting indicated that Fed officials were divided over the timing of future rate increases as they faced stubbornly weak inflation.However, they agreed that the Fed would...
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