South Africa's economy has been hit by a ravaging drought and its economic prospects do not look promising, South African Reserve Bank head Lesetja Kganyago said ahead of Standard and Poor's release of its ratings decision on Friday.
S&P's has already warned that dismal growth and policy upheavals are a concern for the ratings agency, while analysts fear the economy could be downgraded to "junk" as major sectors of the economy slipped into sharp decline.
The governor, speaking at an agricultural business meeting near Cape Town, said it was not clear whether this would be enough to avoid a credit rating downgrade from S&P.
"We told them the South African credit story. We basically told them the South African credit metrics had improved since the last time they had issued their statement," Kganyago told Reuters when asked about his discussions with S&P.
Hanns Spangenberg, senior economist at NKC African Economics, said the low growth rate was a concern for S&P.
"If I was a betting man I would lean towards them downgrading us, simply because I think a downgrade in 2016 is going to happen, either by S&P and Fitch, and S&P has historically been the more negative of the two," he said.
