South Africa Ends 2025 With First Rating Upgrade in Two Decades and Over 200 Days Without Load Shedding
JOHANNESBURG, 26 December 2025. South Africa is closing 2025 having recorded its first sovereign credit rating upgrade in approximately 20 years and more than 200 consecutive days without electricity load shedding, marking a turnaround in two of the country's most intractable economic...
South Africa Ends 2025 With First Rating Upgrade in Two Decades and Over 200 Days Without Load Shedding
JOHANNESBURG, 26 December 2025. South Africa is closing 2025 having recorded its first sovereign credit rating upgrade in approximately 20 years and more than 200 consecutive days without electricity load shedding, marking a turnaround in two of the country's most intractable economic constraints, according to year-end assessments of South African business conditions.
S&P Global Ratings upgraded South Africa's foreign currency long-term sovereign credit rating to BB from BB- and its local currency rating to BB+ from BB on 14 November 2025, the first such upgrade by any of the three major credit rating agencies in over 16 years, and the first upgrade from S&P specifically in approximately 20 years. S&P cited South Africa's improving growth and fiscal trajectory and reduced contingent liabilities associated with Eskom's recovery. The upgrade caused benchmark government bond yields to fall to record lows in the days that followed.
Eskom, meanwhile, has run for more than 200 consecutive days without implementing load shedding, having last implemented rotational power cuts in May 2025, when only 26 hours of load shedding were recorded for the financial year. The utility recorded a profit before tax of R23.9 billion for its 2024/25 financial year, its first full-year profit in eight years, with load shedding hours falling from 6,367 in the prior year to 175.
The year was not without turbulence, however. The national budget process was severely disrupted early in 2025, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's initial proposal to raise value-added tax failing to pass parliament in February, requiring two further attempts before a revised fiscal framework, which ultimately abandoned the VAT increase and identified approximately R68-R75 billion in spending cuts, was adopted in May. The budget process strained relations within the Government of National Unity and drew criticism from business organisations and civil society.
GDP grew an estimated 1.1%-1.3% for the full year 2025, the strongest performance since 2022, supported by improved energy supply, early gains from logistics reforms at Transnet, and resilient consumer spending. Unemployment fell from 33.2% in Q2 to 31.9% in Q3, while inflation averaged 3.2%, the lowest annual average in 21 years.
South Africa's R500 billion-R600 billion annual economy remains constrained by structural factors including high unemployment, inadequate infrastructure outside the energy sector, and persistent inequality. Analysts broadly described 2025 as a year of recovery rather than acceleration.