{"id":15537,"date":"2012-10-13T05:52:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/update-2-sp-cuts-s-africa-cites-strikes-social-tensions\/"},"modified":"2012-10-13T05:52:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T03:52:00","slug":"update-2-sp-cuts-s-africa-cites-strikes-social-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-2-sp-cuts-s-africa-cites-strikes-social-tensions\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 2-S&P cuts S.Africa, cites strikes, social tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* SP says ramifications of social tensions could
\ndeteriorate<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Treasury insists spending plans realistic and achievable<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Oct 12 (Reuters) – Standard Poor’s cut South
\nAfrica’s credit rating one notch on Friday to BBB with a
\nnegative outlook, saying mining strikes and social tensions
\ncould reduce fiscal flexibility and hurt growth in the
\ncontinent’s biggest economy.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Treasury hit back, saying its spending plans were
\n“realistic and achievable” and that there was no historical
\nevidence from the 18 years since the end of apartheid to support
\nSP’s assertions.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our young democracy has seen several elections within the
\nruling party and government. None of these have impacted policy
\nand budgeting in the manner that SP suggests,” it said in a
\nstatement.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Government will continue to invest in infrastructure with
\nthe view of enhancing the productive capacity of our economy and
\nthe competitiveness of our industries. This will be done in a
\nmanner consistent with fiscal sustainability.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The rand, which fell to a 3-1\/2 year low on Monday
\namid concerns about the impact to growth of mining and trucker
\nstrikes, shed nearly one percent against the dollar after the
\nSP cut.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It was trading at 8.75 at 1737 GMT, from 8.65 just before
\nthe announcement.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

SP’s downgrade from BBB-plus takes it one notch below both
\nMoody’s Investors Service’s Baa1 rating with a negative outlook
\nas well as Fitch Ratings’ BBB-plus rating, also with a negative
\noutlook.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* SP says ramifications of social tensions could deteriorate * Treasury insists spending plans realistic and achievable JOHANNESBURG Oct 12 (Reuters) – Standard Poor’s cut South Africa’s credit rating one notch on Friday to BBB with a negative outlook, saying mining strikes and social tensions could reduce fiscal flexibility and hurt growth in the continent’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}