Rand calm before budget storm
The medium-term budget, CPI data and company results make for a busy Wednesday for economists and JSE watchers
The rand was relatively calm at R14.24/$ on Wednesday morning ahead of the medium-term budget policy statement, which new finance minister Tito Mboweni is scheduled to start presenting in parliament at 2pm. The rand was trading at R16.33/€ and R18.49/£ at 6.20am. The finance minister has been engaging with South Africans via Twitter ahead of his speech.
Besides the budget, it is a busy day for economists with StatsSA releasing September’s consumer price index (CPI) figures at 10am. Inflation, as measured by the annual change in CPI, is expected to have remained at about August’s 4.9%, according to a poll of economists done by Trading Economics. Investec Bank economist Lara Hodes said inflation may have abated to about 4.6% thanks to energy minister Jeff Radebe capping fuel price increases at 5c/l in September. The temporary brake on fuel price increases will be felt in October’s inflation figure when petrol increased by R1/l and diesel by R1.24/l. StatsSA is also scheduled to ...
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