Article: Weakening the Rand under discussion

The government has taken no decision on weakening the rand but the matter is under discussion, President Jacob Zuma said in Pretoria on Thursday.
 
I'm interested to know how they would weaken the rand without having an effect on inflation. Would our salaries be proportionally increased?
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
I'm interested to know how they would weaken the rand without having an effect on inflation. Would our salaries be proportionally increased?
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You really believethe ANC has thought that far, or in fact actually gives a damn? If you're driving around in a R 500k 4x4 and being paid a fat salary for doing bugger all, you're hardly going to notice if prices go up by a few Rands. But weakening the Rand to make our uncompetitive export industries more attractive to buyers is certainly going to attract votes from the gullible masses who believe that you're doing it "to save their jobs", even if they can't afford food anymore.
 
The_Assimilator said:
You really believethe ANC has thought that far, or in fact actually gives a damn? If you're driving around in a R 500k 4x4 and being paid a fat salary for doing bugger all, you're hardly going to notice if prices go up by a few Rands. But weakening the Rand to make our uncompetitive export industries more attractive to buyers is certainly going to attract votes from the gullible masses who believe that you're doing it "to save their jobs", even if they can't afford food anymore.
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Please refrain from commenting when you lack knowledge on the matter. What you said is only partially true with a biased agenda.

Moving on, I'd like to thing that our trade deficit is stable? +-7% of GDP I think it was.. I'm with Gordhan and Gill that leaving it on free market bases, if we get hit, we get hit, if we strive, we strive ..
Devaluing the currency will only be effective if our goods demanded are elastic, gold and other metals in my opinion, just doesn't cut it, a country that *can* and does do it well, is China, but they are already in manufacturing, something SA lacks.. We won't have enough reserves to fix our currency, not with our deficit.

Dumb idea, leave the Rand alone..
 
The_Assimilator said:
You really believethe ANC has thought that far, or in fact actually gives a damn? If you're driving around in a R 500k 4x4 and being paid a fat salary for doing bugger all, you're hardly going to notice if prices go up by a few Rands. But weakening the Rand to make our uncompetitive export industries more attractive to buyers is certainly going to attract votes from the gullible masses who believe that you're doing it "to save their jobs", even if they can't afford food anymore.
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...... if that is true, zim will be the biggest export country in the world. :D
 
boramk said:
Please refrain from commenting when you lack knowledge on the matter. What you said is only partially true with a biased agenda.

Moving on, I'd like to thing that our trade deficit is stable? +-7% of GDP I think it was.. I'm with Gordhan and Gill that leaving it on free market bases, if we get hit, we get hit, if we strive, we strive ..
Devaluing the currency will only be effective if our goods demanded are elastic, gold and other metals in my opinion, just doesn't cut it, a country that *can* and does do it well, is China, but they are already in manufacturing, something SA lacks.. We won't have enough reserves to fix our currency, not with our deficit.

Dumb idea, leave the Rand alone..
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+100
Devaluing the Rand is a short term solution.
They should be looking at raising productivity and improving skills
 
I'm all for devaluation of the Rand. If they can peg it by R10-R12 to the US dollar then I will be happy. Have you gone shopping lately? If you go to Shoprite most of the non-food stuff are all imports, even ironing boards, same with Mr. Price, Metlz etc. If they can make it more expensive for companies like shoprite to import goods then they'll have to source them from South Africa.

I recently paid R6 for a black pen called Retro at CNA, fsckin made in China. The only way this country will get forward is for us to be net exporters. I wish the government would introduce a price increase freeze legislation for the next five years on all goods and salaries :D.

But before devaluation of the Rand, please take care of the cartels. :D
 
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The_Assimilator said:
You really believethe ANC has thought that far, or in fact actually gives a damn? If you're driving around in a R 500k 4x4 and being paid a fat salary for doing bugger all, you're hardly going to notice if prices go up by a few Rands. But weakening the Rand to make our uncompetitive export industries more attractive to buyers is certainly going to attract votes from the gullible masses who believe that you're doing it "to save their jobs", even if they can't afford food anymore.
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+1

Big business (mining houses, car manufacturers, etc.) has the guavamint in their pockets, so despite the fact that the Rand is fairly valued, they're putting pressure on guavamint to weaken it, just to increase their profits (at great cost to the rest of the country), which immediately get transferred to their British, German and American shareholders. Capitalist pigs. (And I'm a big supporter of capitalism! It just needs strong regulation)
 
news24 said:
I'm all for devaluation of the Rand. If they can peg it by R10-R12 to the US dollar then I will be happy. Have you gone shopping lately? If you go to Shoprite most of the non-food stuff are all imports, even ironing boards, same with Mr. Price, Metlz etc. If they can make it more expensive for companies like shoprite to import goods then they'll have to source them from South Africa.
Click to expand...
If you devalue the Rand the price of food, fuel and various other products will increase. Inflation will go up, then interest rates. I don't see any of this helping our local industry. I don't think there is any way we can be competitive in certain industries. No short-term attempt to fix this is going to be sustainable, so we should rather be looking at long-term solutions. But where do you find a politician that is interested in anything long-term. Might have to look off-planet for that.
 
news24 said:
I'm all for devaluation of the Rand. If they can peg it by R10-R12 to the US dollar then I will be happy. Have you gone shopping lately? If you go to Shoprite most of the non-food stuff are all imports, even ironing boards, same with Mr. Price, Metlz etc. If they can make it more expensive for companies like shoprite to import goods then they'll have to source them from South Africa.

I recently paid R6 for a black pen called Retro at CNA, fsckin made in China. The only way this country will get forward is for us to be net exporters. I wish the government would introduce a price increase freeze legislation for the next five years on all goods and salaries :D.

But before devaluation of the Rand, please take care of the cartels. :D
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We already have a deficit, you want to inflate our deficit even more so we can get imports cheaper? That's a bit short sighted isn't it?
 
+1, Who will benefit? Surely not the poor nor the middle class citizens :erm:

noxibox said:
If you devalue the Rand the price of food, fuel and various other products will increase. Inflation will go up, then interest rates. I don't see any of this helping our local industry. I don't think there is any way we can be competitive in certain industries. No short-term attempt to fix this is going to be sustainable, so we should rather be looking at long-term solutions. But where do you find a politician that is interested in anything long-term. Might have to look off-planet for that.
Click to expand...
 
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