{"id":34767,"date":"2026-05-18T15:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34767"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:28:44","slug":"rand-subdued-as-traders-await-inflation-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-subdued-as-traders-await-inflation-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand subdued as traders await inflation data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">The South African (SA) Rand was muted in early Monday trade, with investors holding back \u200bahead of domestic inflation data expected to reflect \u200cpressures from war in the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Rand traded at 16.7150 against the Dollar , little changed \u200bfrom its previous close.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Statistics SA will release \u200bApril inflation data on Wednesday, with analysts \u2060polled by Reuters expecting it to accelerate to \u200b3.9% year on year, up from 3.1% in March.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">ETM \u200banalytics said in a note that it sees domestic inflation heading towards 5% if oil prices remain buoyant and \u200bthe local currency depreciates further.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">As a net fuel \u200bimporter, SA is heavily exposed to the spike in global \u200cenergy \u2060prices.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;The situation in the Middle East has already dragged on too long, and second-round inflationary pressures are now just a matter of time,&#8221; said ETM \u200bAnalytics.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The statistics \u200bagency will \u2060also publish retail sales on Wednesday, though analysts say the March figures \u200bare unlikely to show weakness as \u200bthey predate \u2060the full escalation of the Iran war.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was down 0.6% \u2060in \u200bearly trade.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 \u200bgovernment bond was also weaker, with the yield up 7.5 basis \u200bpoints at 8.89%.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<a title=\"Original URL: https:\/\/sabc-plus.com\/. Click or tap if you trust this link.\" href=\"https:\/\/zaf01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsabc-plus.com%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CMalobolaBM%40sabc.co.za%7C58308bec4c40417e8cc708deb4b6e125%7C17694f0c19394195913e8542ec6bea22%7C0%7C0%7C639146894705233440%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=L0f1c%2FiGcAOOCiWWk1ggXrUscSAgg%2F%2BpCaABy%2FBResA%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"0\" data-outlook-id=\"d4179c21-cf01-457a-8782-5a7ef1b958db\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBTAA7\" data-imagetype=\"External\" data-imageproxyendpoint=\"\/actions\/ei\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-34767","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand was muted in early Monday trade","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34767","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\/34767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34768,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34767\/revisions\/34768"}],"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=34767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}