Author: The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — Business leaders are ratcheting up pressure on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to reopen the economy more swiftly, warning that the devastation wreaked by a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus could exceed the damage caused by the pandemic itself. Africa’s most industrialized economy was brought to a near halt on March 27 as the government sought to prevent a surge of infections swamping an already…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) has downgraded the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings of the Government of Ethiopia to B2 from B1 and placed the ratings on review for further downgrade. The downgrade to B2 reflects heightened external and government liquidity risks further aggravated by the coronavirus outbreak which has severely hit the economy’s foreign currency receipts, raised the government’s spending needs, and curtailed its financing options. Ethiopia…

Nairobi (Capital Markets of Nigeria) — Moody’s Investors Service, (“Moody’s”) has changed the outlook on the Government of Kenya’s ratings to negative from stable. Concurrently, Moody’s has affirmed Kenya’s B2 issuer and senior unsecured ratings. The negative outlook reflects the rising financing risks posed by Kenya’s large gross borrowing requirements, which include amortization of external bilateral debt and the need to refinance a large stock of short-term domestic debt, at a time when the fiscal…