Rand regains levels last seen in August
The local currency has strengthened back under R13.60/$, making it one of January’s best-performing, emerging-market currencies
The rand strengthened to under R13.60/$ on Monday morning for the first time since August 2018. “Over the last week, as well as in the year so far, the rand is the second-best-performing currency among a basket of 24 emerging-market currencies,” Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan said in her weekly report e-mailed on Friday. “Specifically, the currency gained 1.1% in the last week and 4.8% on a year-to-date basis. The rand’s performance has been aided by a stabilisation in commodity prices, improved sentiment towards emerging markets and the paring back of expectations of further interest rate hikes by major economy central banks.”
The rand was trading at R13.62/$, R15.54/€ and R17.96/£ at 9.20am. European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi is scheduled to make a speech in Brussels at 4pm South African time, providing a clue as to how much longer it intends holding its benchmark interest rate at zero. “The market is increasingly pricing out an interest rate increase by t...
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