South Africa has joined Brics block countries Brazil and Russia when it was downgraded by rating agency S&P Global.
The global credit ratings of India and China remain above junk status.
While S&P two years ago cited sanctions and dwindling oil prices and currency value for downgrading Russia, Brazil was downgraded in February last year after it became tough for the recession-hit country to borrow from the international markets.
South Korea was in the late 1990s downgraded but managed to get back to above junk status credit rating after a year.
Economist Azar Jammine said South Korea, following the downgrade, focused on education, skills development and started producing more instead of importing.
He said SA should implement an economic model similar to South Korea's if it wants to recover.