The ZAR Exchange Rate Thread

[hj2k_x]

As in good news for us bother?

Not so much....

 

[milomak]

targetting 7.60 now

 

[hj2k_x]

$ = R 7.621
£ = R 15.193
€ = R 12.163
Oil = $ 115.33
Gold = $ 916.4
Last update:
23 Apr 2008 11:30:00

More strengthening, and for no apparent reason, really.

 

[Syndyre]

$ = R 7.621
£ = R 15.193
€ = R 12.163
Oil = $ 115.33
Gold = $ 916.4
Last update:
23 Apr 2008 11:30:00

More strengthening, and for no apparent reason, really.

The rise in interest rates helped but that was a while ago.

 

[hj2k_x]

And now this

Increase in rate of Inflation of over 10% is not going to be great And it just seems to keep climbing, month on month.

 

[hj2k_x]

Stats SA are changing the basket for CPI again, apparantly it'll be 1% lower.

Nice way to bring inflation down, by just changing the basket

 

[hj2k_x]

Read these 2 shortish articles.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803311044.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804150040.html

Wow, so they really are entirely new measures basically then.

 

[Syndyre]

Yeah with food inflation alone at 14% it ain't looking good.
Stats SA's reputation has taken a knock over the last decade.

Yeah how long did it take them to release the PPI a while ago?

 

[hj2k_x]

Yeah with food inflation alone at 14% it ain't looking good.
Stats SA's reputation has taken a knock over the last decade.

Yet the Rand seems to be continuing to strengthen, even against the pound. Heading towards the R15/pound barrier...

 

[hj2k_x]

Hard to tell what the reasons are, with currenty futures and all...

Somebody must be buying rands.

Ya, some rich guy must just be going out and buying Rands all day long...

 

[hj2k_x]

$ = R 7.773
£ = R 15.358
€ = R 12.249
Oil = $ 116.44
Gold = $ 902.35
Last update:
24 Apr 2008 12:30:00

Why is the new iafrica site taking so long to update?

 

[air]

was mentioned about 2 days ago that a pom bank was buying rands.

 

[hj2k_x]

was mentioned about 2 days ago that a pom bank was buying rands.

Do you know why they would do that?

 

[air]

Do you know why they would do that?

maybe short [expecting it to weaken] the rand? They were not specific, only meantioned 'A British bank' - possibly Barclays/Absa? -

 

[hj2k_x]

maybe short [expecting it to weaken] the rand? They were not specific, only meantioned 'A British bank' - possibly Barclays/Absa? -

I see. Interesting. It just does not seem there is any other explanation for such strengthening looking at the other factors that normal affect the rate.

 

[milomak]

With our interest rates on the up, investing in ncd's and new bonds becomes attractive for the Brits.

bonds hardly attractive when they'll lose value when interest rates are jacked up again probably twice more this year. also no good when that high interest rate you are receiving is wiped out by depreciation of the rand. the greater driver for the rand is likely the view that most have that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us.

also the dept of finance was on a SA roadshow in London last week or the week before which also coincided with the bullishness in the rand and tightening of our offshore spreads.in hindsight, they were quite lucky with their timing.

 

[hj2k_x]

1.00 GBP = 15.0949 ZAR

Looks like it might be back under R15/pound by the weekend...

 

[air]

the greater driver for the rand is likely the view that most have that the worst of the credit crisis is behind us.

would that be behind us [ZA] or us [USA] or us [whole world]?

imvvho - this credit crisis is only approx. 1/3 thru, still beeg numbers to be written down - US is buggered, can't raise interest rates even tho inflation is climbing rapidly, what to do, not a nice situation to be in... And when they go down, we generally all go down, only thing possibly to protect us is commodities?

 

[milomak]

behind the world as a whole. remember i say the worst is over, not that the crisis is over.

 

[Arthur]

The rates quoted in many/most of the posts above are wrong.

Almost all Rand/$ rates quoted in the preceding posts mention the Rand Buy rate, ie if you have foreign currency and you want to buy Rand. However, the discussions assume transactions the other way round ... how many Rand it takes to buy the particular foreign currency.

A clear distinction should be drawn between the Buy rate and the Sell rate.

Rand Buy Rate = the number of Rand you get if you buy Rand with foreign currency, ie if you exchange say your dollars for Rand. This is the figure usually quoted in media.

Rand Sell Rate = if you sell Rand to buy foreign currency, ie the number of Rand it takes to buy the desired foreign currency. This is a higher number, ie it takes more Rand to buy say $1 than you will get if you exchanged $1 for Rand.

For example, today (25 April 2008) the quoted bank average is as follows:

US Dollars
Rand Sell Rate: 7.7712
Rand Buy Rate: 7.5315

Euro
Rand Sell Rate: 12.1751
Rand Buy Rate: 11.6926

British Sterling
Rand Sell Rate: 15.4979
Rand Buy Rate: 14.8829

There's a further wrinkle: there are different exchange rates if you transact in notes, TCs or TT/wire.

To get a realistic sense of how much the Rand is really worth in say US$, you should look at the Selling Rate as quoted by the commercial banks. Their online banking websites usually have a fuller spectrum of rates.

Bottom line: we're worse off than the typically quoted Buy rate suggests!