In a move that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni described as 'painful', rating agencies Fitch and Moody's pushed South Africa's credit rating deeper into the scrap heap of junk with downgrades announced late on Friday. Borrowing costs will rise, leaving less money for schools and clinics, and other services.
The moves were also unexpected: most economists certainly did not anticipate that Moody's would pull the trigger again. But it did and so did Fitch, delivering a double-barrel shotgun blast into South Africa's widening fiscal hole.
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