Credit rating agency Moody’s has lowered South Africa’s economic growth outlook to 0.7%, from 1% for the 2019-20 financial year.
Lead Sovereign analyst at Moody’s, Lucie Villa, says the growth forecast of all G20 countries, which includes South Africa, was revised downwards due to external factors such as US-China trade tensions and the global economic slowdown.
Villa was speaking at the Moody’s Sub-Saharan Africa Summit in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
“Then we revised all of our forecasts on the 22nd of August for all G20 economies which South Africa is a part of. Based on other data that we received between June and August, we revised down to 0.7%.”
Moody’s is the only major rating agency that still has South Africa on a none -junk or investment-grade rating. A downgrade could mean large outflows of investor cash and send debt cost soaring.
There is keen interest in the vies of the agency ahead of a possible rating change in November.
Various investment, market, and economic analysts are attending the event.
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