ECONOMY WATCH: Will Nene have any positive news?
SA’s surprise recession has raised the stakes for finance minister Nhlanhla Nene
SA’s surprise recession has raised the stakes for finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who is under pressure to deliver a credit ratings positive medium-term budget policy statement in October.Nene will present the budget to parliament on October 24. International credit ratings agency Moody’s is expected to deliver its credit rating action on October 12, which could culminate in a downgrade of SA’s remaining investment grade rating to junk if metrics weaken significantly.In September Moody’s warned that weaker-than-expected economic performance "would exacerbate monetary and fiscal challenges for SA" and was "credit negative". The economy contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018. S&P Global Ratings and Fitch lowered SA to subinvestment grade last year.The economy is expected to grow by less than 1% for the year, which may limit the ability to achieve tax collection forecasts.Corporate and personal income tax collection was weak in the first half of this year, data for April to J...
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