Rand eyes move below R13.00 vs the dollar
The rand continued its march against the dollar in morning trade on Wednesday (15 February) spurred by better local economic indicators including jobs data and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The local unit reached its best levels in 15-months against the US dollar on Tuesday, after data showed that the country’s unemployment rate declined in the fourth quarter of 2016.
By 10h12, the rand was 0.37% firmer against the dollar, at R13.05, having touched R13.0450 earlier in the session, its best level since October 16, 2015.
It also firmed up against the pound and euro, 0.54% and 0.5% respectively, to R16.22, and R13.79.
Job stats released on Tuesday by StatsSA showed that employment grew by 235,000 in South Africa in the fourth quarter of 2016, while the number of job seekers declined by 92,000 resulting in slight drop in the unemployment rate by 0.6 of percentage point to 26.5%.
On Wednesday, the stats body noted that the headline CPI (for all urban areas) annual inflation rate in January 2017, was 6.6%.
This rate was 0.2 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 6.8% in December 2016.
On average, prices increased by 0.6% between December 2016 and January 2017, StatsSA said.
The CPI is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care.
Standard Bank chief currency trader Warrick Butler told Reuters that the marginal decline in the CPI “should pull in some interest for bonds again”.
Read: Rand surges to best level in 15-months vs the dollar
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