ANC welcomes South Africa’s ratings upgrade by S&P Global

The African National Congress (ANC) has welcomed the decision by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings to upgrade South Africa’s sovereign credit rating.

The S&P decision follows the tabling of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) earlier this week.

ANC NEC member and deputy Finance Minister David Masondo says the decision to revise the country’s foreign currency rating from BB minus to BB with a positive outlook reflects the country’s growth prospects.

“Based on our fiscal credibility, the S&P has come back and says ‘you are doing well insofar as managing your fiscus is concerned. Evidence shows that one of the measures used in determining your ability to service your debt is the debt to GDP.” That’s the ratio used to determine your ability to service your debt, and in the budget, we have shown that our debt to GDP is stabiling. We have realised the primary budget surplus for three years and what that means is that our revenue is higher than our expenditure,” adds Masondo.