S&P downgrades SA's outlook

Standard & Poor's kept South Africa's credit rating at BBB- but changed its outlook to negative from stable.

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Johannesburg - Standard & Poor's kept South Africa's credit rating at BBB- on Friday but changed its outlook to negative from stable, saying this reflected the view that economic growth might be lower than expected.

In a statement, S&P said it expected GDP growth in 2016 to remain around 1.6 percent and only increase above 2 percent from 2017 as the capacity of electricity supply improved.

S&P had said in March Pretoria's rating was unlikely to change in the next 24 months, but warned an electricity crunch would shave 0.3 percent off economic growth this year.

Reuters