The government remains committed to implementing much-needed economic reforms to revive economic growth in the country, the National Treasury said on Saturday after ratings agency S&P lowered its outlook for the country to “negative”.

Image: REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID
S&P late on Friday affirmed SA’s long term foreign currency debt rating at “BB” and local currency debt rating at “BB+” but revised the outlook to negative from stable.
The country’s foreign and local credit ratings by S&P remain below investment grade.
According to S&P, the outlook revision indicates that SA’s debt metrics are rapidly worsening as a result of the country’s very low GDP growth and high fiscal deficits.
The agency stated that unless government takes measures to control the fiscal deficit and fast-track the implementation of reforms, debt is unlikely to stabilise within S&P’s three-year forecast period.