{"id":22082,"date":"2026-01-07T08:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-subdued-as-dollar-rebounds-december-pmi-contracts\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:10","slug":"rand-subdued-as-dollar-rebounds-december-pmi-contracts","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-subdued-as-dollar-rebounds-december-pmi-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand subdued as Dollar rebounds, December PMI contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was subdued in early Wednesday trade, pressured by a rebounding United States (US) Dollar and a contraction in December&#8217;s local Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index, the sharpest drop in business activity since January 2025.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Rand traded at 16.38 against the Dollar , about 0.2% weaker than its close on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s and Purchasing Managers (PMI) Index fell to 47.7 from 49.0 in November as demand waned and firms reduced purchases and inventories.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ETM Analytics said in a research note that despite the downturn, business confidence remained resilient, with optimism for 2026 fuelled by expectations of new projects, stronger sales and an improving economy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;For now, the Dollar-Rand is consolidating its recent retreat. Sentiment towards SA continues to run high, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchangerising to fresh record levels, and bond yields remaining subdued,&#8221; ETM Analytics said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The current market dynamics are supportive of the Rand, which should ensure that the Rand remains strong for some time to come,&#8221; it added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand ended 2025 nearly 13% stronger against the US Dollar, its biggest annual gain in 16 years as the greenback weakened broadly.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13754,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-22082","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"SA Rand was subdued in early Wednesday trade","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22082","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\/22082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25501,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22082\/revisions\/25501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}