Rand loses shine amid jittery global markets
The recent strength in the dollar and its ripple effects on emerging markets have helped tip the scales in favour a tighter monetary policy
The rand was on the defensive on Friday morning, after another wild week for currency markets.As widely expected, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold on Thursday, noting global trends that had played out negatively for the rand and inflation outlook.The upshot is that interest rates are likely to increase by at least 25 basis points by the end of 2018, according to the Bank’s projections.The recent strength in the dollar and its ripple effects on emerging markets have helped tip the scales in favour a tighter monetary policy — a scenario that looked unlikely a few months ago.The dollar has been the currency of choice of late, knocking virtually every other currency out of its path, though its momentum subsided somewhat this week."Due to the many different external factors that can impact the South African markets at any given point, with this especially being the case for the rand, setting interest rate policy is not a straight-forward task," said Jameel Ahmad, global head ...
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