Despite low growth, political upheaval and constrained finances, the chances that South Africa's credit rating will be downgraded this year are slimmer, say business leaders at the forefront of initiatives to save the country's rating. Colin Coleman, CEO of Goldman Sachs SA, said this week's medium-term budget did manage to gain support for South Africa from ratings agencies.Speaking at an event after the budget hosted by Discovery Invest, he said ratings agencies had acknowledged the strength of the country's democracy and the independence of key institutions like the Reserve Bank and the judiciary.Some structural reform was also noticed by ratings agencies. This included measures to stabilise the labour market, which has been prone to strikes in recent years, improved competition in certain industries, progress on youth employment and strengthening support for small and micro enterprises.story_article_left1"On an aggregate basis, there is reason to be hopeful regarding the rating process," said Coleman.Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who was the guest speaker at the event, said: "We're not down in the dumps - that's the message of the medium-term budget. There are things we can collectively do."Asked about the green shoots in the economy that he referred to in his budget, Gordhan said there were better prospects for commodity prices, and the exchange rate could still boost exports.In the mining industry there was a pipeline of projects that could be unlocked through policy certainty.Tourism and agriculture could also yield growth.Gardner Rusike, an associate director at S&P Global Ratings, said the agency was halfway through its 24-month monitoring period of South Africa's credit-rating metrics.He said the agency could revise the outlook to stable if certain credit metrics improved, or it could keep the outlook for longer."As long as you continue believing that these factors may improve, and improve the credit metrics, then you can keep the outlook for longer," he said.S&P's rating for South Africa is BBB- with a negative outlook. It is the only agency to have the country on the lowest investment-grade rating.Moody's rating is BAA2, with a negative outlook, and Fitch has South Africa on BBB- with a stable outlook. All three ratings are still investment grade.More than 90 CEOs formed the CEO Initiative, which partnered the government and labour to come up with a plan to boost economic growth. Over the past nine months they have preached a message of good news about the country to investors and ratings agencies on international roadshows.Coleman said rating agencies were concerned with three metrics: economic growth, institutional strength and structural reform.story_article_right2"We are working very constructively. In terms of growth, we are showing that we have reached the bottom and we are turning around."Coleman said second-quarter economic growth of 3.3%, compared with the 1.2% contraction in the first quarter, showed that the country had reached the bottom of the cycle and it was turning around."But let's be very clear, a 1% to 2% growth rate is unacceptable in South Africa. We are aiming for a 3% growth rate, which is our 20-year average growth rate achieved. That is effectively us doing the basics right. It is well within our means."This week the National Treasury said it expected the economy to grow by 0.5% this year, which is a substantial shift from the 0.9% it forecast at the start of the year.But Coleman said uncertainty in global financial markets would benefit emerging market economies like South Africa and "we should be making our way back to 2% within a reasonable time frame."Investec CEO Stephen Koseff said business was willing to invest if confidence improved. "The issue you have in some of your ministries is they talk one thing and then, when you walk past, they trip you and that's what we don't need in our society. Many of them are disenablers; they've got a wrong agenda."..