The rand lost as much as 16c against the dollar to R13.9284 on Wednesday afternoon while Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the medium-term budget policy statement in Parliament. The rand weakened after Gordhan cut the outlook for economic growth for 2016 to 0.5% from 0.9% and that for 2017 to 1.3% from 1.7%. Growth is expected to improve to 2% in 2018 and 2.2% in 2019. The rand also lost value after Gordhan indicated that tax increases would be implemented next year as the Treasury struggled with lower revenue collection and student demands for free education. When Gordhan began his medium-term budget policy statement the rand was at R13.76 to the dollar, the level at which it closed on Tuesday. Initially it weakened to R13.82, hovering around that level for a few minutes, but towards the end of the statement it had weakened to R13.89. At 3.28pm, it was at R13.8788 to the dollar. It was at R15.1748 to the euro from R14.9866 and R16.9593 to the pound from R16.7804. The euro w...
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