{"id":108251,"date":"2016-01-07T09:10:15","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T07:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=108251"},"modified":"2016-01-07T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T07:11:16","slug":"rand-hits-r16-vs-dollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/108251\/rand-hits-r16-vs-dollar\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand hits R16 vs dollar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rand broke through R16 against the dollar in morning trade on Thursday (7 January), following a softer-than-expected Purchasing Managers’ Index reading<\/span>, while global markets reacted to hydrogen bomb testings in North Korea.<\/p>\n

Adding to the pressure, the rand also faced a depreciating yuan, Reuters reported. <\/span><\/p>\n

The dollar advanced following data which showed US private-sector employers added 257,000 jobs in December, with unemployment reaching a 3-year low.<\/p>\n

Equally, the rand weakened against the euro and British pound, trading at record lows.<\/p>\n

By 08:55 AM, the rand was 1.23% softer against the dollar, at R6.01. <\/span>Against the euro the rand was at R17.32, and R23.41 against the pound.<\/p>\n

Adding to investors’ nervousness was North Korea’s announcement that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, Reuters reported.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Locally, poor market conditions and a lack of demand were the main drivers behind a drop in the latest seasonally adjusted Standard Bank South Africa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) from 49.6 to 49.1, published on Wednesday (6 January).<\/p>\n

December data highlighted a continuation of the downturn in South Africa\u2019s private sector that started in June, with business conditions deteriorating at a slightly stronger rate than in November.<\/p>\n

“South Africa’s private sector remained in the doldrums in December, thereby continuing the trend that has defined the second half of 2015,” said Markit economist Oliver Kolodseike.<\/p>\n

The currency touched R16 against the greenback on 11 December 2015, after president Jacob Zuma replaced Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with David van Rooyen, before re-appointing Pravin Gordhan to his old post.<\/p>\n

More on the rand<\/h3>\n

Rand touches R16 vs dollar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Weak rand not Zuma\u2019s fault \u2013 ANCYL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rand crashes to lowest level ever as Zuma sacks finance minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rand at worst-ever levels against the dollar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rand broke through R16 against the dollar in morning trade on Thursday (7 January), following a softer-than-expected Purchasing Managers’ Index reading, while global markets reacted to hydrogen bomb testings in North Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":82401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-108251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108255,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108251\/revisions\/108255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}