South Africans can expect lower prices on computing and technology products, but it will take time to filter through.<\/p>\n
This is according to Esquire CEO Mahomed Cassim, who said the rand\u2019s strength will result in lower technology prices.<\/p>\n
However, as many importing companies took forward-cover from financial institutions at a higher rate than the current exchange rate, prices are expected to remain static in the short term.<\/p>\n
Forward-cover is a financial instrument which fixes the exchange rate when buying or selling products in another currency.<\/p>\n
This makes it possible for companies to hold prices steady when dealing with volatile currencies, like the South African rand.<\/p>\n
Cassim said whatever pricing relief they have received, which is based on the lower rate of exchange, has already been passed on to their clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that if the rate of exchange remains steady to what it is now, it will allow even more pricing to fall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Should the rand continue to strengthen, Cassim expects to see retail prices falling as new stock arrives in the country.<\/p>\n
Matrix Warehouse said it also expects prices to go down, but it would take around three months to filter through. This also relies on the rate of exchange staying favorable.<\/p>\n
The company said the exchange rate is only one factor which determines the price of products, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is a shortage on a product, the unit cost goes up as the value of that specific product increases,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Duxbury Networking director Paul Stuttard concurred, stating that local technology prices will decrease as the rand strengthens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lower the rand, the lower the price for like-for-like imported products,\u201d said Stuttard.<\/p>\n
Stuttard added that the introduction of new product lines also brings a change in the technology that is available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe newer products often offer greater functionality, but at similar prices to the products they are replacing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
South Africans can expect lower prices on tech products in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":170355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[48991,35],"class_list":["post-249259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-exchange-rate","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249433,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249259\/revisions\/249433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}