The currency’s previous all-time low was R13.85 to the dollar in 2002.<\/p>\n
This was due to rising concerns about waning growth in China, which hit commodity currencies.<\/p>\n
Commodities have sunk to 16-year lows, according to the Bloomberg Commodity Index<\/a>, with sentiment in the market extremely negative. This was fueled by another massive drop in the Chinese stock market.<\/p>\n The local currency has continued to hit new lows across the market, having breached R21 to the pound and R15.35 to the Euro since 21 August.<\/p>\n USD vs ZAR via XE.com<\/p><\/div>\n Cees Bruggemans, consultant economist at Bruggemans & Associates, has painted a bleak future for the rand – saying that with continued depreciation, the currency could hit R22.50 to the dollar by 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to know where the rand will be traveling the next three years, take our underlying inflation differential \u2013 about 4%, roughly \u2013 and add a dollar appreciation factor and a rand depreciation factor<\/p>\n “What rand decline rate do you get? Not zero \u2013 rand appreciating in real terms. Not -4% annually \u2013 rand holding its own with dollar in real terms, but more likely something in -6% to -10% territory,\u201d said Bruggemans.<\/p>\n Bruggemans’ estimates put the rand ar R13.45 to the dollar by mid-2016, however, this rate may underestimate the power of the dollar, which gets “turbo power” as other markets (such as China, Japan and Greece) dwindle.<\/p>\n By 08:30 on 24 August, the rand was trading at R13.32 to the dollar.<\/p>\n Naspers shows faith in Bitcoin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n R22.50 to the dollar by 2018?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Zim scraps currency after hitting Z$35,000,000,000,000,000 against the dollar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"USD](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/USD-vs-ZAR.png\")
<\/a>More on currencies<\/h3>\n