{"id":144791,"date":"2016-11-28T11:35:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T09:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=144791"},"modified":"2016-11-28T11:35:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T09:35:21","slug":"rand-below-r14-vs-the-dollar-amid-zuma-no-confidence-debate-and-credit-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/144791\/rand-below-r14-vs-the-dollar-amid-zuma-no-confidence-debate-and-credit-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand below R14 vs the dollar amid Zuma no confidence debate and credit ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s rand firmed 2% against the dollar on Monday after rating agencies Fitch and Moody&#8217;s affirmed the country&#8217;s investment-grade credit ratings.<\/p>\n<p>The rand traded at R13.85 against the dollar, was 1.65% firmer against the pound at R17.27, and also improved 1.24% against the euro, to R14.76 in mid-day trade.<\/p>\n<p>Ratings agencies Fitch and Moody&#8217;s affirmed South Africa&#8217;s investment-grade credit ratings late on Friday. Fitch rates South Africa one notch above &#8216;junk&#8217;, while Moody&#8217;s has the sovereign two levels above sub-investment grade, noted Reuters.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"st\"> The ANC&#8217;s national executive committee (<wbr \/>NEC) meanwhile have reportedly tabled a motion for Zuma to step down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The committee extended its meeting on Monday to debate Zuma&#8217;s future. The NEC is the only body with powers to recall the party president in between its conferences.<\/p>\n<p>Economists have estimated how much the South African rand would improve if Jacob Zuma stepped down as president of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Consensus among them in a report by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-safrica-zuma-burden-idUSKBN12Y1QW\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>, is an almost immediate improvement of 10% to 15% \u2013 representing a R670 billion boost to the economy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rand has had a gap open this morning which is likely due to the combination of a weaker dollar but also the positive news from the rating agencies,&#8221; Standard Bank chief currency trader Warrick Butler said in a note.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters also reported that focus was also on Zuma, who is facing a vote of no confidence by the ruling party&#8217;s executive committee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The market should be cautious about expecting too much, having been disappointed so often in the past,&#8221; Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/142297\/this-is-how-much-the-rand-will-improve-if-zuma-resigned-today\/\" target=\"_blank\">This is how much the rand will improve if Zuma resigned today<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s rand firmed 2% against the dollar on Monday after rating agencies Fitch and Moody&#8217;s affirmed the country&#8217;s investment-grade credit ratings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":144519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-144791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144791","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=144791"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144809,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144791\/revisions\/144809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}