The rand was hardly changed on Thursday morning, the day after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered his budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The local currency was volatile, firming to R12.94/$ after the speech was delivered. The local market did not react much to the speech as there were no real surprises and much of what Gordhan said had already been priced in. Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said the budget was "decent" because it was in line with deficit, debt and expenditure reduction, which had come up in the medium-term budget policy statement last year. Cairns said the budget should have done enough to please the rating agencies and, in the absence of political shocks, SA should be able to avoid a subinvestment credit downgrade this year. Sasfin Wealth analysts said the release of the Federal Reserve’s minutes on Wednesday had boosted the rand. The Fed indicated that it expected to increase interest rates "fairly soon" as the US economy was improving and President...
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