...More Frequent, Larger Changes: Alterations in a South African non-financial corporate issuer's fundamental credit quality may lead to more frequent and/or dramatic rating changes on the South African national scale than on the global scale. This is because the national scale supports greater credit differentiation by investors in local markets based on the ranking of issuers relative to the best credit in the country (typically the sovereign). Modest Sovereign-Induced Moves: Changes in the fundamental credit quality of the sovereign on the contrary may lead to only modest changes in national scale ratings for other rated non-financial corporate issuers, as most rated entities in the country tend to be subject to the same local factors. Fitch's approach to national ratings is set out in National Scale Ratings Criteria, dated 30 October 2013. National Notching Greater Differentiation: Fitch assigns and maintains national scale ratings based on the credit quality of an issuer relative to the...
