South African government bonds strengthened on Thursday afternoon after the rand firmed to R11.9171 to the dollar following the release of upbeat economic data on Wednesday.The rand was also supported by increased growth prospects for the country after the IMF raised SA’s growth forecast this week from 0.9% to 1.5% in 2018.The economic landscape is slowly starting to look encouraging with the "Ramaphosa effect" boosting sentiment, FXTM analyst Hussein Sayed said.The benchmark R186 broke through 8% for the first time in three weeks on Thursday with the rally supported by better-than-expected consumer inflationary numbers. The consumer price index (CPI) came in at 3.8% in March from an expected 4.1%.At 3pm the R186 was bid at 7.985% from 8.015% and the R207 at 6.875% from 6.89%.The rand was at R11.9407 to the dollar from R11.9306.US and UK bond yields went in the opposite direction, rising sharply as a bout of risk-on sentiment supported equities on positive corporate earnings release...
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