{"id":42944,"date":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42944"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:44:22","slug":"rand-pressured-as-middle-east-conflict-dampens-risk-appetite","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-pressured-as-middle-east-conflict-dampens-risk-appetite\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand pressured as Middle East conflict dampens risk appetite"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trading on Tuesday as rising tensions in the Middle \u200bEast dampened risk appetite and supported the Dollar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Rand traded at 16.2675 against the Dollar, about 0.3% weaker than its previous close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The United States Dollar was \u200bstronger against a basket of currencies, with oil prices \u200brising for a third session.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA imports the \u2060majority of its fuel, making it sensitive to the \u200bsurge in global energy costs since the war started \u200bin late February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Iran said it would shift to a &#8220;fully offensive&#8221; military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the \u200bwar have stalled, a senior Iranian official told \u200bReuters as Washington ruled out extending their June ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The more \u200cthan \u2060five-month-long conflict has upended the global rates outlook and stoked inflationary concerns through most of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On the domestic front, investors will focus on SA&#8217;s July \u200binflation data due \u200bon Wednesday, \u2060with economists expecting annual inflation to ease to 4.5% from 5.0% in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry is \u200bdue to \u2060publish its July Business Confidence Index on Tuesday, providing a measure of private-sector sentiment in \u2060Africa&#8217;s \u200blargest economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government \u200bbond weakened in early deals, as the yield rose 7 basis points \u200bto 8.545%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-42944","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand weakened in early trading on Tuesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42944","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\/42944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42945,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42944\/revisions\/42945"}],"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=42944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}