ZIMBABWEAN Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa thinks South Africa’s rating downgrades were unfair.

The “mere change of a finance minister should not have been the basis of the downgrades”, he told the Zim-SA Investment Conference in Sandton on Friday.
This is the first time that a high ranking Zimbabwe government official has made any public comment regarding the downgrade of SA by international ratings agencies.
He hailed Malusi Gigaba’s appointment as finance minister, which he said had resulted in fruitful engagements and a “good relationship”.
Chinamasa said he was in talks with Gigaba to increase the volumes of lines of credit from SA to Zimbabwe.
“We are receiving lines of credit via the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Standard Bank and others, but what we now need is to increase the volumes,” he said.

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