{"id":555869,"date":"2024-08-17T07:49:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T05:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=555869"},"modified":"2024-08-17T07:52:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T05:52:47","slug":"rand-on-a-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/555869-rand-on-a-roll.html","title":{"rendered":"Rand on a roll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa\u2019s rand is on a winning run not seen in 13 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ninth consecutive day of gains in the currency, often seen as a bellwether for the outlook of emerging markets, marks its longest streak since January 2011 as well as a five-week high on a closing basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of Friday morning, it was the best-performing currency against the dollar among the 150-or-so global currencies tracked by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South African assets have won investors\u2019 favour since a business-friendly coalition took power two months ago and the country\u2019s economic data began improving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inflation has fallen since February, relieving the pressure on the central bank to keep interest rates high. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The expected start of Federal Reserve rate cuts next month could open the door for policymakers to follow suit, said Marek Drimal, a strategist at Societe Generale SA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe one-off move higher in USD\/ZAR during the market rout in early August offered investors a very good entry point to buy South African assets,\u201d Drimal said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gains extend beyond the currency. The government\u2019s rand bonds have handed investors total returns of 2.7% this month, outperforming the emerging-market benchmark which has given them 1.5%.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, with traders pricing in rate cuts in South Africa, the rand rally may face headwinds. Forward-rate agreements see at least 50 basis points of easing this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unlikely the rand rally has still legs,\u201d Drimal said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the rand to secure long-term, fundamental-driven gains, \u201cdelivering reforms aimed at structural improvements of the South Africa economy and growth potential is crucial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"814\" height=\"457\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rand-rally_Bloomberg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-555875\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rand-rally_Bloomberg.jpg 814w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rand-rally_Bloomberg-600x337.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rand-rally_Bloomberg-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ninth consecutive day of gains in the currency marks its longest streak since January 2011 as well as a five-week high on a closing basis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":436580,"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_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[96489,49937,23359,96693,78910],"class_list":["post-555869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-government-of-national-unity-gnu","tag-interest-rates","tag-rand","tag-societe-generale-sa","tag-south-african-rand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555869"}],"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\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555869"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555882,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555869\/revisions\/555882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}