Chris Hart opens up on junk status, IMF bailout and press freedom
13 May 2016
Cape Town - South Africa will most likely have reached junk status by the end of this year, according to Chris Hart, former Standard Bank economic commentator.
Hart, who resigned in March from his position as investment strategist at the bank’s wealth and investment division amid a Twitter furore, spoke at a Cape Town Press Club lunch on Thursday about the current economic and political climate as well as what he perceives as censorship on freedom of speech in South Africa.
The fact that Moody’s rating agency has retained its credit rating outlook of South Africa at two notches above junk status is not a sign that other rating agencies, such as Fitch and Standard & Poor’s, would refrain from downgrading the country to junk status, Hart said.
“With Moody’s it was more a case of ‘the glass is half full, not half empty'. Moody’s had a wait-and-see stance, but Fitch and S&P may take a different view (when the rating agencies consider South Africa’s credit rating in June).”