The South African rand declined against the US dollar as of September 15, due to mounting concerns over a worsening power crisis, leading up to the release of local inflation data and an impending interest rate decision scheduled for next week.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!At 1538 GMT, the rand was trading at 19.0550 against the dollar, reflecting a decrease of slightly over 0.1% compared to its previous close. Despite a reduction in power cuts by state utility Eskom for the weekend, the potential for more severe power interruptions beyond the recent “Stage 6” outages has raised apprehension among investors.
Furthermore, the rand faced losses on the preceding day following unexpected drops in mining production figures for July. South African investors are closely watching for August inflation statistics to be unveiled on Wednesday, as well as the central bank’s interest rate verdict on Thursday.
Analysts, according to Reuters polls, anticipate that the South African Reserve Bank will maintain the current interest rates during its meeting scheduled for September 21. Meanwhile, on a positive note, shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange witnessed gains, with both the broader all-share index (.JALSH) and the blue-chip Top-40 index (.JTOPI) concluding the day more than 0.3% higher.
Additionally, South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond exhibited weakness, with the yield rising by 3.5 basis points, reaching 10.475%.
