BUSINESS NEWS - The country appears to have dodged the ‘junk’ investment bullet again for now.

A month of bad news from Eskom regarding its generating capacity saw South Africans worry that the last of the big three ratings agencies, Moody’s, would lose faith in the country.

The US-based agency on Friday kept its Baa3 rating and stable outlook by simply skipping its March 29 assessment.

A short note was issued at nearly 1am SA time, Saturday morning, explaining the fact that the country had been among other entities skipped for assessment. No reasons were given.

Moody’s has skipped making an assessment on South Africa’s sovereign debt once before, and the next ratings action will now only have to be announced on November 1.

The other two major rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, had already downgraded the sovereign rating to “junk” in 2017, meaning only the Moody’s rating has allowed South Africa to stay on key bond investment indexes.

Read the full article here on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.