{"id":35678,"date":"2026-05-28T09:55:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35678"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:55:43","slug":"rand-weakens-ahead-of-central-bank-rate-decision-2","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-ahead-of-central-bank-rate-decision-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand weakens ahead of Central bank rate decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Thursday, ahead of a much-anticipated interest rate decision by the SA \u200bReserve Bank (SARB) later in the day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand \u200ctraded at 16.45 against the Dollar, about 0.5% down from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fifteen of the 22 economists polled by\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0expect the SA Reserve Bank to raise \u200bits benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 7.00% \u200bfrom 6.75%, while the remainder expect the bank to leave \u2060the rate unchanged.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>At the bank&#8217;s last meeting, it kept rates unchanged, saying caution \u200bwas needed as higher energy prices linked to the United States (US) and Israel war against \u200bIran would push up inflation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s annual inflation quickened to 4.0% year on year in April, driven mainly by sharp fuel price rises linked to the US and Israel war against \u200bIran.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Investec economist Lara Hodes said in a note that upside risks to \u200binflation have increased as a result of the war in the Middle East and \u200ctherefore \u2060the SARB is likely to hike rates by 25 bp, &#8220;acting pre-emptively to prevent any second-round effects from becoming embedded in inflation&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Statistics SA will publish producer inflation numbers which could offer clues on \u200bthe health of Africa&#8217;s \u200bmost industrialised \u2060economy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Economists at Nedbank said they expect producer inflation to increase from 2.3% in March to 3.5% in April, primarily \u200bdriven by a sharp rise in fuel costs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;This reflects \u200bthe \u2060impact of higher oil prices following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, alongside a weaker rand amid sustained geopolitical tensions in Iran, which have \u2060heightened risk \u200baversion toward emerging markets,&#8221; the bank&#8217;s Economists \u200bsaid.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was slightly firm in early deals, as the yield \u200bfell 6 basis points to 8.48%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-35678","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand weakened in early trade on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35678","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\/35678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35679,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35678\/revisions\/35679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}