{"id":35927,"date":"2026-06-01T10:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T08:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35927"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T08:20:24","slug":"rand-inches-lower-before-manufacturing-pmi-vehicle-sales-figures","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-inches-lower-before-manufacturing-pmi-vehicle-sales-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand inches lower before manufacturing PMI, vehicle sales figures"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">The South African (SA) Rand weakened slightly in early trade on Monday ahead of the release of a \u200blocal manufacturing purchasing managers&#8217; index and vehicle sales data \u200cfor May.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Rand traded at 16.2450 against the Dollar, roughly down 0.2% from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">An Absa Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index (PMI) survey is \u200bset to be released at 0900 GMT and \u200bwill shed light on manufacturing conditions in Africa&#8217;s most \u2060industrialised economy.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Manufacturing sentiment improved in April, helped by a rebound in \u200boutput and new sales orders.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Investors will then turn their focus \u200bto vehicle sales due, which will give a snapshot of consumer demand for big-ticket items.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Car sales rose 13% in \u200bApril. Nedbank economists in a research note forecast an 8.7% \u200bincrease in May.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;Despite mounting risks associated with fuel prices, their impact on \u200cheadline \u2060inflation and the knock-on effect on interest rates, vehicle sales are expected to remain buoyant, supported by earlier interest rate cuts and an influx of affordable imported models,&#8221; they said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Oil \u200bprices rose more than \u200b2% on \u2060Monday after Iran and the United States traded strikes and Israel ordered troops to move further into \u200bLebanon in the battle with the Tehran-backed Hezbollah \u200bmilitant \u2060group.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;For now, the rand continues to use oil prices as its compass and will look to the Middle East for further \u2060guidance \u200bon direction,&#8221; said ETM Analytics.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">SA&#8217;s benchmark \u200b2035 government bond weakened in early deals, with the yield rising 6.5 \u200bbasis points to 8.45%.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-35927","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand weakened slightly in early trade on Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35927","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\/35927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35928,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35927\/revisions\/35928"}],"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=35927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}