{"id":43620,"date":"2026-08-24T10:11:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43620"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:11:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:11:02","slug":"rand-holds-near-multi-month-high-as-iran-sanctions-loom","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-holds-near-multi-month-high-as-iran-sanctions-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand holds near multi-month high as Iran sanctions loom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand opened the week on a firm footing on Monday, hovering near its strongest \u200blevel since the start of the Iran war, as a \u200csubdued Dollar, higher gold prices and strength across emerging-market currencies supported the commodity-linked currency.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 15.99 against \u200bthe Dollar, up about 0.2% and not far from \u200bits strongest level since the start of the Iran \u2060war touched earlier in the session.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s\u00a0key export, \u200bgold, hit its highest level in more than three months as \u200ba subdued Dollar\u00a0lent support, while investors looked ahead to key United States (US) inflation data and a speech by Federal Reserve Chairperson Kevin Warsh later \u200bthis week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Dollar was pinned near multi-month lows as traders \u200bawaited details of a fresh US sanctions package against Iran.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US Treasury Secretary \u200cScott \u2060Bessent is due to hold a press conference after threatening &#8220;the toughest sanctions in history&#8221; on Iran, while Iran&#8217;s Foreign Minister\u00a0dismissed the threat of new US sanctions as \u200ba sign of \u200bdesperation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Wichard Cilliers, \u2060head of market risk at TreasuryONE, said the Rand&#8217;s\u00a0rally was being driven by broad Dollar\u00a0\u200bweakness, strong emerging-market sentiment and higher gold \u200bprices.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Like other \u2060risk-sensitive currencies, the Rand\u00a0has been at the mercy of global market sentiment, particularly since the start of the US and Iran \u2060war on \u200bFebruary 28.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government \u200bbond was slightly firmer in early deals, as the yield fell 1.5 basis \u200bpoints to 8.565%.<\/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-43620","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand opened the week on a firm footing on Monday,","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43620","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\/43620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43621,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43620\/revisions\/43621"}],"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=43620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}