Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa needs to lower its 7.6 percent fiscal deficit projected for the current fiscal year if it wants to keep its BBB+ long term foreign currency rating, according to Standard & Poor’s.

“Running the kind of deficits they are running at the moment is not sustainable for too long,” Konrad Reuss, S&P’s managing director for sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview in Cape Town today. “Over the next three years we really need to see a return to lower deficits and a reversal in debt dynamics. That’s in the context of South Africa retaining its current rating.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Garth Theunissen in Johannesburg at gtheunissen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 5, 2009 03:41 EST