{"id":28097,"date":"2026-03-09T10:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=28097"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:35:06","slug":"rand-falls-to-three-month-low-as-soaring-oil-prices-spur-inflation-worries","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-falls-to-three-month-low-as-soaring-oil-prices-spur-inflation-worries\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand falls to three month low as soaring oil prices spur inflation worries"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s (SA) risk-sensitive Rand started the week sharply weaker \u200b<\/span>as investors, unnerved by surging oil prices and the potential effect on global inflation \u200cand growth, dumped risk assets and took profit on some of their best-performing trades.<\/p>\n

The Rand traded at 16.85 per United States (US) Dollar on Monday, shedding 2% from its previous close and hovering around its weakest since \u200b<\/span>mid-December.<\/p>\n

SA’s benchmark 2035 government bond also weakened in early deals, with the\u00a0\u200b<\/span>yield rising 1.5 basis points to 8.505%.<\/p>\n

Crude oil prices surged more than\u00a0\u2060<\/span>25% as the expanding US, Israeli war with Iran led some major Middle Eastern oil\u00a0\u200b<\/span>producers to cut supplies amid fears of prolonged disruption to shipping through the Strait of\u00a0\u200b<\/span>Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Analysts said the\u00a0Rand\u00a0is likely to remain weak as a rise in global risk aversion and higher oil prices weigh on\u00a0SA, a net importer of energy.<\/p>\n

“The stars have aligned for the rand to come\u00a0\u200b<\/span>under considerable pressure, and the only response the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) might have\u00a0\u200b<\/span>to combat the outflow from bonds and the volatility that might well be reflected in the rand \u200cis\u00a0\u2060<\/span>through rate hikes,” said ETM Analytics in a note.<\/p>\n

The SARB’s\u00a0Governor\u00a0told\u00a0Reuters<\/em>\u00a0last week that it will revise its risk scenarios for its next policy meeting as the Middle East conflict continues to push oil prices higher.<\/p>\n

The bank is due to announce its interest\u2011rate decision\u00a0\u200b<\/span>on March 26, after\u00a0\u200b<\/span>leaving its main lending\u00a0\u2060<\/span>rate unchanged at 6.75% in a split vote in January, saying at the time that policymakers wanted to see inflation expectations ease further.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0\u200b<\/span>the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was down 0.6% in\u00a0\u200b<\/span>early trade.<\/p>\n

Domestically\u00a0\u2060<\/span>focused investors this week will look to the country’s statistics agency’s release of fourth quarter gross domestic product \u00a0and January mining and manufacturing figures for clues on the health\u00a0\u2060<\/span>of the\u00a0\u200b<\/span>continent’s most industrialised economy.<\/p>\n

“Until there is clarity on\u00a0\u200b<\/span>the duration and scale of the conflict, markets are likely to remain volatile with investors favouring defensive positioning,” said\u00a0\u200b<\/span>Andre Cilliers, Currency Strategist at TreasuryONE.<\/p>\n

–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13933,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-28097","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA risk-sensitive Rand started the week sharply weaker","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28097","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\/28097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28098,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28097\/revisions\/28098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}