LONDON Jan 13 (Reuters) – The cost of insuring South
African sovereign debt for five years against default jumped 10
basis points on Friday after Fitch cut the country’s credit
rating outlook to negative.
Five-year South African credit defaults swaps
rose to 214 bps from Thursday’s close. Earlier
on Friday, they traded at 202 bps, data from Markit showed.
Fitch cited the limited progress on South Africa’s
structural reform and a deterioration of the external position
for its decision but affirmed the country’s ‘BBB+’ rating.
South Africa’s portion of the hard-currency EMBI+ Global
Index widened slightly after the downgrade, standing at
287 bps over U.S. Treasuries.
(Reporting by Sebastian Tong; editing by Sujata Rao)
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