LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) June 29, 2001--Standard&Poor's today assigned its triple-'B'-minus long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating to the ¥60 billion ($500 million) bonds due July 2007 issued by the Republic of South Africa. Earlier this year, Standard&Poor's affirmed its triple-'B'-minus/'A-3' foreign currency issuer credit rating and its single-'A'-minus/'A-2' local currency issuer credit rating on South Africa. The outlook is stable. Factors supporting South Africa's ratings include: -- Prudent fiscal policies and reforms that have kept spending under control and budget deficits on a downward trend. National government deficits will continue to decline steadily to 2.1% of GDP by 2003/2004 from this year's 2.6%, which is a substantial improvement on annual deficits of more
