The Fitch rating logo is seen at their offices at Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, on March 3, 2016.
Ratings agency Fitch says the current social riots will not have a significant impact on the local economy.
Speaking to the SABC News , Fitch’s Senior Director, Jan Frederich, says it’s unlikely that the country’s sovereign rating could falling deeper into junk due to the riots that have been largely characterised by the looting of shopping malls.
But he has acknowledged that violence highlight risks to social and political stability and could affect fiscal policy.
“What we assume for now is these protests will be contained in time and will not last. The overall impact on fiscal revenue will be small, in terms of the immediate impact on public finances that’s likely to be well contained not something that we would think of taking a rating action on.”
In May, Fitch maintained a negative outlook of the country’s credit prospects, saying it reflected significant risks to debt stabilisation.
The agency expected the country’s economy to grow by 4.3% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2022 with a boost from commodity prices, while anticipating that tight public finances and electricity shortages will hold back growth.
Counting the cost of looting:
