Fitch keeps SA's credit rating unchanged at BB- with stable outlook

JOHANNESBURG - International ratings agency, Fitch, has kept South Africa’s credit rating unchanged at BB- with a stable outlook.  

This is the fifth consecutive time that the agency has not revised South Africa’s credit rating since December 2021. 

Despite the stable outlook, Fitch has flagged its concerns about the country’s anemic economy and rising government debt.  
 
In the latest credit report released on Friday, Fitch listed a number of mitigating factors that helped to keep the country on the current stable outlook. 

Despite the country’s chronic energy crisis and well-documented challenges in the logistics sector, Fitch said that government’s planned interventions were a sign of good news. 

This includes plans to increase capacity to the power grid and the recent R50 billion guarantee facility granted to indebted Transnet. 

Operation Vulindela is also expected to help unlock the country’s growth potential. 

But Fitch said that some of the structural reforms in the pipeline were not significant enough to pull the country out of the woods entirely. 

Fitch said it was also keeping a close eye on policy uncertainty, with the African National Congress (ANC)'s goverance issues in sharp focus in the build up to this year’s general elections. 

Fitch’s rating is on par with S&P's long-term debt rating of BB-.