{"id":14995,"date":"2025-11-11T08:02:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-softens-before-unemployment-manufacturing-data\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:22","slug":"rand-softens-before-unemployment-manufacturing-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-softens-before-unemployment-manufacturing-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand softens before unemployment, manufacturing data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The South African (SA) Rand softened in early trade on Tuesday, ahead of the release of unemployment and manufacturing data later in the day and a national budget review on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The Rand traded at 17.16 against the Dollar, roughly down 0.2% from its previous close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The local currency staged a recovery on Monday, gaining about 1% after news that the United States (US) Senate had passed a deal that would restore federal funding and end the longest shutdown.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Domestic investors will look to unemployment data for the third quarter of 2025 to gauge the labour market of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Nedbank economists said in a research note they expect a decrease in employment from export-oriented industries which are likely on wait and see mode as they assess the impact of US tariffs and subdued global demand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The country&#8217;s official jobless rate currently stands at 33.2%, one of the highest rates worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The statistics agency will also publish manufacturing output, in which analysts polled by Reuters estimate a 0.3% decline for the month of September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">But Nedbank economists forecasted a 0.7% increase, reversing the 1.5% contraction recorded in August.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;While the sector continues to face structural and cost pressures, output is expected to receive some support from consumer-oriented manufacturing sectors, which are benefiting from firmer domestic demand and improved electricity supply and logistics performance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Investor attention will quickly pivot to the national budget presentation by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was stronger in early deals, as the yield fell one basis point to 8.74%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-14995","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"SA Rand softened in early trade on Tuesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19418,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14995\/revisions\/19418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}