JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- South African government should pay attention to the warning issued by Fitch ratings about its sluggish economic growth and poor finance, Jannie Rossouw, professor of Wits Business School told Xinhua on Thursday.
Rossouw made the remarks after Fitch released a report on Wednesday which raised concerns about high and increasing debt levels, debt ridden state-owned entities, among others.
"The report focuses on all things that are wrong about South Africa. The government must always remember that this junk status ranking can go even lower if no changes are made," he said.
Fitch kept South Africa's rating at junk status or BB+. Rossouw said the ratings could be revised to a lower status.
"The lower the rating goes, the more risky investing in your country is regarded and even there's higher interests rates on borrowing. South Africa needs to reign in on its spending, we need to see a new approach from government," he said.
In its report, Fitch expressed concern about the country's ability to deal with public debt.
"The government confirmed a significant deterioration of the fiscal situation. The deterioration reflected both additional expenditure around 0.5 percent of the GDP," Fitch said.
Fitch also said embattled power utility was the country's biggest concern.
Fitch projected that South Africa's economic growth is at 0.4 in 2019. It said the growth will start growing beyond 1 percent in 2020.
