Tag: Fitch

2020 has been an unusual and challenging year in many ways, particularly in global markets. This article speculates on the outlook for forex traders in the months to come. With the US Elections still fresh in our minds; a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon and the South African economy still under significant strain, 2021 is going to be a revealing year.

Moody’s and Fitch downgraded SA’s foreign-currency sovereign rating and its local-currency rating.

South African investors are still absorbing the twin blows of being downgraded by Moody’s into junk territory and, just four days later, the expected Fitch decision to take the South African sovereign debt rating down a further notch into junk territory.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassed one million last week. This number probably still understates the true spread of the coronavirus given the lack of testing in many places, and the fact that some infected persons don’t show symptoms.

There was more salt in the wounds for South Africa when Fitch announced that they were downgrading government's credit rating another notch, this follows the announcing by Moody's a week ago that they were also downgrading the credit rating.

Moody’s finally dropped the sword on South Africa on Friday evening, following in the steps of fellow ratings agencies S&P and Fitch in downgrading the country’s sovereign credit rating to sub-investment grade or 'junk status'. And the COVID-19 crisis and current lockdown mean that even before factoring in the impact of Moody’s decision, the economic outlook for SA in 2020 is harrowing.

All eyes are on newly appointed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s first Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), scheduled to be delivered to Parliament on 24 October. Just two weeks into his tenure, Minister Mboweni will face the task of affirming government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation and strategic investment in the face of low economic growth.

Victor Mphaphuli | Co-head | STANLIB Fixed Income | media@stanlib.com | www.stanlib.com | South Africa’s economic history since 1994 when the country first asked global...

    Lesiba Mothata | Executive Chief Economist | Gyongyi King | Chief Investment Officer | | Alexander Forbes | http://www.alexanderforbes.co.za/ | S&P Global Ratings has, for the first time...

With South Africa already on precarious ground as a result of its alleged ‘state capture’, not least also the effects of South Africa being...