South Africa\u2019s revenue outperformance puts the country on course for further credit-ratings upgrades over the next year, Goldman Sachs Group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National Treasury data for June shows corporate tax collections grew about 5.5% to R385 billion ($23.3 billion) on a semi-annualised basis, boosted largely by mining-industry export profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The figure, released this week, was well above the R345 billion achieved in the 2025-26 fiscal year and the 364 billion rand projected in the February 2026-27 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom a sovereign credit rating perspective, the continued strength in these fiscal data reinforces our expectation that both Moody\u2019s and S&P will upgrade their credit ratings over the next year,\u201d Andrew Matheny, an economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moody\u2019s Ratings currently pegs South Africa at Ba2, which it maintained in May while upgrading its outlook to positive from stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company cited an improved fiscal position, the authorities\u2019 commitment to stabilising state finances and progress in implementing economic reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S&P Global Ratings in November raised South Africa\u2019s rating\u2014the country\u2019s first upgrade in two decades\u2014for the same reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A further increase would lift its rating for the country to BB+ from BB and support South African fixed-income instruments, \u201cwhere in our view current pricing does not reflect expectations for a credit rating upgrade,\u201d Matheny said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa, the continent\u2019s biggest economy, has made significant progress in stabilising its public finances, with improving fiscal metrics reinforcing confidence in the government\u2019s consolidation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country recorded a better-than-expected primary budget surplus of 1.1% of gross domestic product in the year through March, surpassing the National Treasury\u2019s February forecast of 0.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A notable contribution to this shift is South Africa\u2019s finance regulator, which imposed record penalties as it sought to deter misconduct and boost trust in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority levied more than R2.89 billion ($175 million) of fines in the year through 31 March compared with 119.8 million rand a year earlier, it said in a report on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most serious penalty was in excess of R2 billion levied against online-trading platform Banxso for deepfake advertising and misappropriating client funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authority also withdrew Banxso\u2019s licenses, debarred key company officials for 30 years and forwarded the matter to prosecuting authorities to pursue a criminal case, Divisional Executive of Enforcement Gerhard van Deventer said at a briefing Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FSCA\u2019s actions have contributed to South Africa\u2019s hard-won exit last year from the global Financial Action Task Force\u2019s dirty-money list in 2025, with the nation demonstrating a revamped regulatory framework and improved compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regulator concluded 678 investigations during the period, the highest number of cases finalised in a single year. It debarred 68 individuals for failing so-called fit-and-proper standards, withdrew 14 licenses and issued 140 public warnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FSCA imposed a R358.75 million administrative penalty on Stehan Grobler, a former executive at collapsed global retailer Steinhoff International Holdings NV, for the publication of false statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA broader market-abuse probe is still ongoing,\u201d Van Deventer said. \u201cIn the coming year, we will eventually get to the point where we can put that case behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regulator also imposed a R212 million fine on Medbond Group for investor harm after the company marketed fictitious investment products to investors that resulted in losses of about R194 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africa\u2019s revenue outperformance puts the country on course for further credit-ratings upgrades over the next year, Goldman Sachs Group said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":868445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2084174750260080735","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2165254610961605","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18011555507943330","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[14880,853],"class_list":["post-868435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-goldman-sachs-group","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868447,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868435\/revisions\/868447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}