{"id":28655,"date":"2026-03-13T11:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=28655"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:39:07","slug":"rand-set-for-second-weekly-loss-as-oil-surge-stokes-inflation-fears","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-set-for-second-weekly-loss-as-oil-surge-stokes-inflation-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand set for second weekly loss as oil surge stokes inflation fears"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The South African (SA) Rand weakened on Friday, heading for a second consecutive week of losses as surging energy prices fueled by conflict \u200bin the Middle East rattled global markets and heightened inflation \u200cconcerns.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Rand traded at 16.94 against the Dollar, 0.9% weaker than Thursday’s close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The currency has faced sustained pressure since the US, Israeli war on Iran started \u200bnearly two weeks ago. It fell over 3% last week and \u200bis poised to decline by around 2% this week. Rising \u2060oil prices pose a challenge for SA, a net energy \u200bimporter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that Tehran will keep \u200bthe strategic Strait of Hormuz closed as leverage against the US and Israel, which has stoked concerns about global energy supply and risk assets.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Oil prices rose above $100 a barrel, despite \u200bthe US trying to ease supply concerns by issuing a 30-day license \u200bfor countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Higher oil import costs \u200ccould \u2060narrow trade surpluses and place renewed pressure on the current account if elevated prices persist,” ETM Analytics said in a research note.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, SA recorded its first current account surplus in more than two years in the \u200bfinal quarter of \u200b2025, helped by \u2060rising precious metal prices, but the data had little effect on the Rand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“While this war continues and the \u200bstress in the oil market builds, one should expect emerging-market \u200bcurrencies \u2060such as the rand and its LATAM peers to underperform developed-market currencies, especially the US Dollar,” ETM Analytics said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The greenback was last up 0.4% against a \u2060basket \u200bof currencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 \u200bindex fell 1.2% in early trade.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SA’s benchmark 2035 government bond also weakened, as the \u200byield rose 11 basis points to 8.825%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-28655","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand weakened on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28655","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\/28655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28656,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28655\/revisions\/28656"}],"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=28655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}