SA downgraded further into 'junk status' - Mboweni reacts
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says economic reforms need to be implemented urgently to avoid any further harm to the country's sovereign rating.
He says South Africa's credit ratings being pushed deeper into junk status by two agencies is painful.
Moody's has lowered our foreign- and local-currency ratings to BA2 with a negative outlook.
Fitch has cut the country's ratings to BB- with a negative outlook.
The two rating agencies say their decisions were informed by rising government debt debt and a weakening fiscal position, exacerbated by the impact of measures to deal with COVID-19.
Mboweni says the downgrade will have immediate implications for the country's borrowing costs.
The DA says the downgrades are a vote of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s management of the economic reform agenda.
