Several countries including South Africa, China and Britain will all face key ratings decisions in 2017 as rising political risk and debt levels push the number of countries on a downgrade warning back to a record high says\u00a0ratings agency Moody’s.<\/p>\n
According to Alastair Wilson, Moody’s managing director of sovereign risk, over a\u00a0quarter of the world’s sovereigns are on a negative outlook, which is the highest proportion since 2012 .<\/p>\n
While the UK faces the pressures of leaving the European Union and the USA will have to deal with a controversial new president in 2017, South Africa, Brazil and China are all particularly at risk if they don’t re-orientate their economies, Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on South Africa, Wilson noted that\u00a0the situation was still salvageable in\u00a0the country although the government’s politicking had been noticed on the international stage.<\/p>\n
“Certainly it’s fair to say (political) noise has risen in recent months, but that isn’t necessarily significant from a credit perspective. South Africa’s institutional strength had also been bolstered by a key court throwing out a recent fraud case against the country’s finance minister”, Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Moody’s currently rates South Africa\u00a0at “Baa2”, one notch higher than fellow ratings agencies S&P and Fitch, and two notches above junk status. It currently has the country at a negative outlook.<\/p>\n