{"id":42236,"date":"2026-08-12T10:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42236"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:28:28","slug":"rand-steady-near-five-month-peak","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-steady-near-five-month-peak\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand steady near five-month peak"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday, holding near a five-month high against \u200bthe Dollar as traders took stock of recent \u200cdomestic unemployment figures and awaited fresh United States (US) inflation data.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 16.19 against the Dollar, little changed \u200bfrom its previous close and maintaining levels around \u200bits strongest since March 2.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;While the Rand did \u2060test above 16.23, it is back below 16.20 and \u200bthe longer it stays below 16.25, the more likely \u200bthat a new range will come into play. How can this be, when local unemployment increased back to 33.6%?&#8221; said Adam Phillips, \u200bTreasury S<span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">pecialist<\/span>\u00a0at Umkhulu Treasury.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s official unemployment rate rose \u200bto 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026 from 32.7% in \u200cthe \u2060first quarter from the statistics agency showed on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The R<span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">and<\/span>\u00a0was supported by a weak US jobs report last week that quelled fears of higher interest rates, reigniting \u200brisk appetite.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Amid \u200bfading expectations of \u2060a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next month, investors awaited US inflation data later in \u200bthe day for clues on the central \u200bbank&#8217;s \u2060policy path.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often takes its cues from global factors, particularly US monetary policy, alongside \u2060domestic economic \u200bdata.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government \u200bbond was weaker in early deals, as the yield rose 10.5 basis \u200bpoints to 8.41%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#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-42236","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"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\/42236","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\/42236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42237,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42236\/revisions\/42237"}],"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=42236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}