{"id":21840,"date":"2025-12-31T13:47:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-ends-2025-on-high-note-gains-nearly-13-on-the-dollar\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:48","slug":"rand-ends-2025-on-high-note-gains-nearly-13-on-the-dollar","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-ends-2025-on-high-note-gains-nearly-13-on-the-dollar\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand ends 2025 on high note, gains nearly 13% on the Dollar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">The risk-sensitive currency posted its first yearly rise against the Dollar since 2019 and its largest increase since 2009, supported by SA&#8217;s improved fiscal performance, success in containing inflation and a surge in precious-metal prices.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gold and platinum, key SA exports, rallied strongly during the year. In contrast, the Dollar slid about 9% against a basket of major currencies, heading for its worst annual performance in eight years on expectations of US Federal Reserve rate cuts, narrowing interest-rate differentials, concerns over the US fiscal deficit and political uncertainty.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>These factors fuelled demand for safe-haven assets, pushing gold past a record $4 000 an ounce level in October and putting it on track for its strongest annual gain in more than four decades.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Analysts said that while SA assets benefited, they did not fully take advantage of the commodity boom cycle. 2025 was also the first full year under SA&#8217;s coalition government and was marked by disputes over the national budget and concerns over sweeping US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Despite the turbulence, local assets proved resilient, further boosted by the country&#8217;s removal from the global financial crime watchdog&#8217;s &#8220;grey list&#8221;, a credit-rating upgrade by S&amp;P, and a formal change to the inflation target that lifted investor confidence.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Johann Els, Chief Economist at PSG Financial Services, said the rand is likely to benefit in 2026 from the same factors that boosted it in 2025.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13100,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-21840","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa's (SA) Rand ended 2025 nearly 13% stronger against the United States (US) Dollar, marking its biggest annual gain in 16 years as the greenback weakened broadly.\n","published_date":null,"news_description":"South Africa's (SA) Rand ended 2025 nearly 13% stronger against the United States (US) Dollar, marking its biggest annual gain in 16 years as the greenback weakened broadly.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21840","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\/21840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25353,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21840\/revisions\/25353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}