{"id":24214,"date":"2026-02-25T09:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-firms-ahead-of-national-budget-speech\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:56","slug":"rand-firms-ahead-of-national-budget-speech","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-firms-ahead-of-national-budget-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand firms ahead of National Budget Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South Africa&#8217;s (SA) Rand was firmer in early trade on Wednesday, ahead of the 2026 National Budget Speech to be delivered by the Finance Minister later in the day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 15.9175 against the Dollar\u00a0, about 0.4% firmer from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Investors are keenly awaiting South Africa&#8217;s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana&#8217;s Budget Speech at 12:00 Central African Time, for clues on the coalition government&#8217;s fiscal priorities, its roadmap to tackle debt, and economic reforms.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last year, the budget was postponed after coalition partners clashed over the Minister&#8217;s decision to raise the value-added tax by two percentage points.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ETM Analytics said expectations ahead of the Budget are high, as Godongwana has more fiscal room this year thanks to a stronger economy, higher tax revenues from buoyant commodity prices, and tax overruns.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;If the government prioritises less dissaving and more infrastructure spending, it will help strengthen the economy&#8217;s backbone and ensure that the positive sentiment that has contributed to the Rand\u2019s impressive performance over the past six months continues for a while longer,&#8221; said ETM Analytics in a research note.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Today&#8217;s market response to the Budget will offer some insight into whether the Rand might continue to gain in the weeks ahead.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was firm in early deals, as the yield fell 3.5 basis points to 7.905%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-24214","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24214","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\/24214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26966,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24214\/revisions\/26966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=24214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}