Cabinet has noted with concern the unfortunate international macro-economic outlook, which has not left South Africa unscathed.

During a post Cabinet briefing on Thursday, Acting Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Richard Baloyi said global and domestic factors had contributed to the current situation, which has also resulted in rating agencies altering the country's standing from stable to negative.

"Cabinet remains committed to taking the necessary measures to lift the growth potential and competiveness of the South African economy, to address the domestic contributory factors and to ensure that the impact of the downgrade is contained and does not encroach on already constrained resources for key service delivery programmes," he added.

South Africa took the role of these rating agencies seriously, Baloyi said.

"... We view them as necessary partners to do assessments of [where we are] and reflect on the areas we should pay attention to as an international actor on matters of the economy," he added.

Meanwhile, Cabinet announced that it has also approved the 2012/13 budget adjustments, the fiscal framework and the Division of Revenue for the 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework to be published in the 2012 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.

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