Author: The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — As if an all-but-dead economy wasn’t enough, South African banks must now navigate a downgrade in the nation’s credit rating to junk just as the coronavirus sinks any chance of recovery. Banking stocks slid with the rand and local bonds on Monday after the continent’s most industrialized economy lost its last investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service, which maintained a negative outlook. The coronavirus pandemic means the country, already…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Call it Helicopter Credit. The Federal Reserve is poised to spray trillions of dollars into the U.S. economy once a massive aid package to fight the coronavirus and its aftershocks are signed into law. These actions are unprecedented, going beyond anything it did during the 2008 financial crisis in a sign of the extraordinary challenge facing the nation. “The Fed has effectively shifted from lender of last resort for…

Fitch Ratings-Paris/London-25 March 2020: The coronavirus pandemic will put pressure on sub-sovereign issuers’ financial profiles, Fitch Ratings says. The main transmission channel to sub-sovereign ratings would be through potential sovereign rating actions rather than the direct impact, but this will vary between local and regional governments (LRGs) and government-related entities (GREs). Fitch rates approximately 300 LRGs and 325 policy-driven GREs globally on its international rating scale. Policy-driven GREs are those whose policy missions are traditionally…