{"id":40273,"date":"2026-07-22T11:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40273"},"modified":"2026-07-22T11:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:48:40","slug":"rand-steady-as-investors-brace-for-inflation-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-steady-as-investors-brace-for-inflation-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand steady as investors brace for inflation data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday as investors awaited \u200bdata that is likely to show consumer \u200cinflation accelerated further in June, driven mainly by higher transport and fuel costs.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded \u200bat 16.4625 against the Dollar, little changed \u200bfrom its previous close of 16.47.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Statistics SA \u2060is due to publish June inflation data. Analysts polled by\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0\u200bexpect annual inflation to accelerate to 4.7% from 4.5% in May.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Nedbank&#8217;s economists forecast headline consumer inflation to accelerate further to \u200b4.9% in June, driven primarily by a \u200bsharp increase in transport costs stemming from a surge in \u200cfuel \u2060prices amid higher global oil prices.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>As a net fuel importer, SA is heavily exposed to the spike in global energy prices.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The statistics agency will \u200balso release \u200bMay retail \u2060sales figures.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Investec economist Lara Hodes forecasts retail sales growth \u200bwill edge up to about 1.7% year-on-year \u200bfrom \u20601.3% in April, though pressure on disposable incomes is expected to keep consumer spending subdued.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark \u20602035 \u200bgovernment bond was slightly firmer \u200bin early deals, as the yield fell 1.5 basis points \u200bto 8.545%.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-40273","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40273","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\/40273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40274,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40273\/revisions\/40274"}],"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=40273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}