S&P holds South Africa's rating at BBB-, downgrades local debt

By Mfuneko Toyana and James Macharia JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's downgraded South Africa's local debt by one notch to BBB on Friday but kept its sovereign credit rating unchanged at BBB-, one level above "junk" status, while saying the economy was still struggling. S&P retained its negative outlook on the rating. A cut would take South Africa below investment grade, pushing its bonds out of global indices and preventing institutional investors from buying its debt.