Fitch cuts S. Africa's economic growth forecast

International rating agency Fitch on Thursday cut South Africa's (SA) growth forecast to 2.1 percent this year and 2.3 percent next year.

This was mainly due to a worsening shortage of electricity supply that has gripped the country for half a year, Fitch Managing Director Ed Parker told a conference in Johannesburg.

He said that if the electricity shortage eases, SA's economic growth could rise to 3.1 percent in 2017.

South Africa has been experiencing the worse energy crisis since 2008.

Due to the grave impact of the country's electricity crisis on the GDP, the World Bank had expected South Africa's GDP growth to be two percent this year.

SA's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slowed down in the first quarter of 2015, increasing only 1.3 percent, compared to the 4.1 percent year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Statistics South Africa.

Earlier this week, Fitch affirmed SA's long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings at "BBB" and "BBB+" respectively, and also affirmed the negative outlook for the country's economy.

Despite economic hardships, South Africa would not back from the target of achieving a five-percent economic growth by 2019, President Jacob Zuma said in late May. Endi