SOUTH AFRICA RATING

From Hong Kong Standard--

Fitch puts SAfrica outlook to negative
(06-13 18:43)

Fitch ratings agency on Friday revised the outlook on South Africa to negative from stable and affirmed its credit rating at 'BBB', near the bottom of the investment-grade scale.
The ratings agency said the outlook revision was partly due to a strike at platinum mines, the country's longest-ever mining stoppages that began in January when workers downed tools.
On Thursday, the world's three top platinum producers -- Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin -- said they had "in principle'' reached a deal to end the 21-week deadlock over pay.
Fitch said South Africa's outlook for growth had deteriorated after a 0.6-percent contraction in the first quarter of this year, and it revised its 2014 GDP growth forecast down to 1.7 percent from the 2.8 percent that it issued during the last country review in December 2013.
The mining strike helped push the economy into its first contraction since the global economic crisis five years ago in the first quarter of this year, raising the spectre of recession.
South Africa holds around 80 percent of the world's known platinum reserves, and platinum group metals raked in 9.0 percent of export earnings last year. --AFP