S&P Cuts South Africa Debt Rating, Moody’s Issues Warning
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S&P Global Ratings cut South Africa’s local-currency debt score to junk on Friday, while Moody’s Investors Service also threatened to slash its ranking to the same level, raising the risk of a selloff from global indexes.
S&P lowered the country’s local-currency rating one step to BB+, one level below investment grade, and placed it on a stable outlook. Its assessment on South Africa’s foreign-currency debt, which it already considered speculative, was taken down one notch to BB. Moody’s opted to keep both readings on Baa3, its lowest investment grade, but put them on review for possible downgrade.