Speculation that President Jacob Zuma will be ousted this weekend during an ANC executive committee meeting helped the rand to trade comfortably under R13/$ on Thursday morning. The rand has strengthened more than 5% over five trading days, from R13.59/$ on May 18 to R12.88/$ on Thursday morning. The rand was also boosted by Stats SA reporting on Wednesday that inflation, as measured by the annual change in consumer price index (CPI), fell all the way to 5.3% in April from 6.1% in March. Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago is scheduled to announce the monetary policy committee’s interest rate decision at 3pm on Thursday. While inflation falling back under the central bank’s 6% ceiling and the rand under R13/$ would normally raise hopes of a 25 basis point cut, Kganyago is expected to announce no change to the 7% repo rate. Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan said in a note e-mailed on Wednesday: "On account of the Bank’s CPI forecast remaining near the upper end of the inflation ta...
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