Rand gains as S Africa dodges ‘downgrade’

Bloomberg

South Africa’s rand and bonds rose after the country clung to its last investment-grade credit rating.
The currency gained 1.7% to 14.7853 per dollar, the most on a closing basis in more than three weeks, and paring its loss since the end of June to 4.7%. The yield on rand-denominated government bonds fell the most since early 2018 and stocks advanced.
Moody’s Investors Service held back from downgrading the government’s debt to junk, although it did lower the outlook to negative. This came even after the country released budget forecasts last week that showed its financial situation deteriorating rapidly.
Moody’s kept the nation’s foreign- and local-currency readings at Baa3, one step above speculative grade. South Africa is already rated junk by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch.