Hello all. Some very good news this morning. South Africa has survived to fight another day by not being downgraded by S&P rating agency to junk status. All credit must be given to Mr Gordhan and his associates for doing the hard work behiond the scenes to aviod the downgrading. In my opinion had it been anybody else in office it would have been a different story. Very good news for all SA's as this should help the fuel price, in fact due to the stregthening of the Rand by some 50cents overnight (currently around R15.07), this most certainly will help the fuel price.
Had the junk status been given we would have seen the Rand fall to between R16 and R18. SA's now don't have to worry about Government costs increasing on interest repayments, which would have to be funded from the current tax revenue or new sources of revenue if no other costs were cut. Importers too can breathe for a while as the Rand steadies.
However let us not get the champaigne bottles out yet and celebrate as alot of hard work still needs to be done before the next credit review by S&P in December. You have our full support Mr Gordhan, make it happen and thank you. Have a great weekend all.
Andrew Trojnar