Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. AIHot
  3. US mid-termsHeating up
NewsbriefSouth Africa, briefly.
JoburgJHB29°69%CTCT21°90%PretoriaPTA33°75%DurbanDBN30°20°

Scope Ratings calls Democratic midterm sweep positive for US credit

Published

Ongoing: US mid-terms Hot

Scope Ratings said on Wednesday that Democratic control of both the House and the Senate supports the AA rating and stable outlook it holds on the United States. The agency expects fiscal policy to stay broadly unchanged.

Scope Ratings is a credit rating agency based in Europe. It said a Democratic-controlled Congress will close most legislative routes for the Trump administration. It said this will severely limit the ability of President Donald Trump to carry out his domestic agenda.

Eiko Sievert, executive director for sovereign and public sector ratings at Scope, said the result and Trump's swift acceptance of Republican defeats confirmed the resilience of US checks and balances.

Scope also warned that risks to fiscal policy will rise. It said talks on appropriations and the debt limit will become more protracted.

The agency expects US public debt to rise from 124% of GDP in 2025 to around 145% by 2031. Scope said that would be the second highest level among advanced economies after Japan. It also expects headline deficits of 7%-8% of GDP.

Key facts

Who
Eiko Sievert (Executive director for sovereign and public sector ratings at Scope Ratings); Scope Ratings (Europe-based credit rating agency); Donald Trump (US President)
What
Europe-based credit rating agency Scope Ratings said the Democrats gaining control of both the House and the Senate is credit positive for the US, supporting its AA rating and stable outlook, while noting that divided government constrains Trump's domestic agenda and that fiscal policy direction is expected to stay broadly unchanged.
When
4 November 2026
Where
United States
Status
Reported

Related stories

Elections Hot

What you need to know

After voting closed in the local government elections, actor Tumisho Masha posted a photo of his marked ballot, which the Electoral Commission (IEC) prohibits, so the post may breach its rules. Special voting drew 1,425,942 people on 2 and 3 November, though some elderly approved applicants still went to Kathorus polling stations on election day, saying they did not know about it.

Earlier, the IEC said about 12 million people had voted by 5pm, and Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said anyone in the queue at 9pm would still vote. Voting began at 7am on 4 November, with 98% of 23,696 stations open on time, though protests and rain delayed some.

Problems included stolen ballots and a voters' roll at an eThekwini school, where the IEC said materials were enough and police opened a case, and an elderly woman's death in a Shallcross queue.

  1. EFF to open criminal case against IEC over special votes
  2. Local election voting ends with turnout near 50%
  3. Cape Town votes start quietly in Nyanga, strongly in Bo-Kaap

See every update

AI Hot

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

  1. Accenture faces accusations over AI report with false citations
  2. CrowdStrike to buy two AI security startups
  3. Google lets schools turn off AI tools but limits Search

See every update

US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US Senate and the House in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and the result was a rebuke of President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck Qeshm Island in Iran, which Washington called defensive, while Republicans struggled to defend the war on the campaign trail. Iran's officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for new US strikes.

The dollar fell to a one-month low after the result, and the rand firmed to around R16.55.

  1. Scope Ratings calls Democratic midterm sweep positive for US credit
  2. Iran welcomes Democratic wins in US midterm elections
  3. Democrats win US Congress in midterm vote, projections show

See every update