South Africa has received another reprieve to get its house in order - international credit ratings agency Moody's has kept the government's debt rating unchanged.
Late on Friday Moody's confirmed South Africa's rating at Baa3 and revised the outlook to stable from negative. This was widely expected, especially following Cyril Ramaphosa's rise to the presidency a month ago, after which he began to boot out problematic ministers and heads of institutions in a wide-ranging clean-up campaign to tackle corruption and maladministration.
Moody's said the recent change in political leadership "offers a real prospect of a decisive reversal in that erosion of strength". It added that steady progress in meeting the objectives set out in the president's recent state of the nation address would be needed if the recovery in confidence that would be essential for the country's economic and fiscal prospects was to be sustained.
Moody's had kept South Africa on watch for a downgrade over a 90-day period. It was the only one of the three largest international rating agencies still to have the government's foreign- and rand-denominated debt on investment grade.
The risk of a further downgrade had diminished significantly, economists said...