{"id":36572,"date":"2026-06-09T10:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36572"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:40:43","slug":"rand-firms-ahead-of-gdp-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-firms-ahead-of-gdp-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand firms ahead of GDP data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The South African (SA) Rand strengthened in early trade on Tuesday as investors awaited \u200bfirst-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, with growth \u200cexpected to remain modest.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The rand traded at 16.44 against the United States Dollar, up about 0.5% \u200bfrom its previous close.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Statistics SA is \u200bdue to release GDP figures, offering fresh clues on the health \u200bof Africa&#8217;s most industrialized economy.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Economists polled by\u00a0<i>Reuters \u200b<\/i>forecast GDP growth of 0.3% quarter on quarter, down from 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 1.8% year on year.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Nedbank economists \u200bexpect growth to slow to 0.2% quarter on quarter, \u200bwith services leading gains alongside agriculture and mining, while manufacturing, \u200celectricity \u2060and construction remain under pressure.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;We still expect economic growth to improve slightly from 1.1% in 2025 to 1.2% in 2026, mainly driven by consumer \u200bdemand, which \u200bshould continue \u2060to benefit from earlier interest rate cuts. The war in Iran, however, \u200bposes significant downside risks&#8221;, Nedbank said \u200bin \u2060a note.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top 40 index was up 0.7% in early trade.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s \u2060benchmark \u200b2035 government bond was stronger \u200bin early deals, as the yield fell 4.5 basis points to \u200b<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-36572","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand strengthened in early trade on Tuesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36572","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\/36572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36573,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36572\/revisions\/36573"}],"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=36572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}