{"id":39149,"date":"2026-07-09T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39149"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:34:00","slug":"rand-firms-ahead-of-key-manufacturing-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-firms-ahead-of-key-manufacturing-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand firms ahead of key manufacturing data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand firmed in early trade on Thursday ahead \u200bof local manufacturing production data due \u200clater in the session, even as oil prices rose and the Dollar remained firm following renewed United States (US) and Iran \u200btensions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded \u200bat 16.3450 against the Dollar, about 0.5% \u2060up from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Statistics SA will publish May manufacturing output, offering investors clues on the health of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Economists polled by \u200b<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0expect manufacturing output to have \u200bfallen 3.2% year on year. Nedbank Economists forecast a 3% contraction.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The \u200csector \u2060continues to grapple with high domestic cost structures, caused by inefficient and expensive general economic infrastructure, which has systematically eroded \u200bthe sector&#8217;s \u200bprice competitiveness,&#8221; \u2060Nedbank Economists said in a research note, adding that manufacturers \u200bhave also had to absorb higher \u200bUS \u2060tariffs and the recent surge in local fuel prices.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government \u2060bond \u200bwas firmer in early deals, \u200bas the yield fell 4.5 basis points to 8.33%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34578,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-39149","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand firmed in early trade on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39149","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\/39149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39150,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39149\/revisions\/39150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}