B20 Chair Tshabalala slams credit agencies

Chair of the B20 Finance and Infrastructure task force Sim Tshabalala has again criticised international credit ratings agencies amid growing concerns about a bias against African countries.

Tshabalala who is also the CEO of the continent's largest bank is among many leading voices that have hit out about the mispricing of African debt.

His comments have also been echoed by other captains of industry and some South African government officials at the B20 summit at the Sandton Convention Centre.

This is the business leg of the G20 under South Africa’s presidency which comes to an end this week.

Tshabalala said the lack of transparency in credit ratings for African states can no longer be ignored.

“The mispricing of African debt costs two percentage points of GDP. So, if the continent is going to grow at 4.5 % this year, it should be growing at 6.5%. I mean, that is why it's characterised by me and by many others as scandalous," said Tshabalala.

Although South Africa was recently given its first rating upgrade by S&P in nearly two decades Tshabalala said the country should be a few notches higher.

“It should actually be rated BBB, which is investment grade, that would save South Africa R50 billion in the medium term. Think of how many schools, how many bridges, how many roads could be built by doing that.”