{"id":45859,"date":"2026-09-18T11:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45859"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:30:03","slug":"rand-holds-steady-ahead-of-inflation-data-expected-rate-hike","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-holds-steady-ahead-of-inflation-data-expected-rate-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand holds steady ahead of inflation data, expected rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady on Friday as investors shifted their focus to \u200bnext week&#8217;s inflation data and monetary policy \u200cmeeting, where the central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 16.2450 \u200bagainst the Dollar, little changed from its \u200bprevious close of 16.2649.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The currency has been supported by \u2060stable commodity prices after the United States (US) Federal \u200bReserve raised interest rates and signalled that further monetary \u200btightening may follow.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Traders are now focused on August consumer inflation data due on Wednesday for fresh clues on the S\u200bA Reserve Bank&#8217;s (SARB) plans on interest rates.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Headline \u200binflation cooled to 4.3% year-on-year in July, the first fall in five \u200cmonths.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s central bank surprised investors and economists by keeping its main lending rate unchanged at its previous meeting, saying its policy was restrictive enough to \u200breturn inflation to \u200bits target \u2060within two years.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The SARB is in a predicament, as to whether to \u200bincrease rates or not. A hike would \u200battract \u2060yield investors, but would mean a curtailing of domestic activity,&#8221; said Adam Phillips of Umkhulu Treasury.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s \u2060benchmark \u200b2035 government bond was slightly \u200bfirm in early deals, as the yield fell 1.5 basis points \u200bto 8.615%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-45859","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was steady on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45859","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\/45859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45860,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45859\/revisions\/45860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}