{"id":46460,"date":"2026-09-25T11:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46460"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:50:20","slug":"rand-softens-as-markets-absorb-central-bank-rate-hike","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-softens-as-markets-absorb-central-bank-rate-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand softens as markets absorb Central bank rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand softened in early trade on Friday as markets digested the Central \u200bbank&#8217;s interest rate hike, while growing expectations that \u200cthe Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated weighed on the risk-sensitive currency.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at \u200b16.40 against the Dollar, about 0.3% down from \u200bits previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The SA Reserve Bank raised its \u2060key interest rate by 25 basis points to \u200b7.25%, saying the Iran war had triggered &#8220;large and sustained&#8221; \u200bprice shocks and that tighter policy was needed to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Governor Lesetja Kganyago said it was crucial \u200bfor inflation to return to the central bank&#8217;s \u200b3% target as recent fuel price pressures fade<\/div>\n<div>As a net fuel importer, \u200cSA\u00a0is heavily exposed to swings in global energy prices<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Dollar\u00a0was set for its first back-to-back weekly gains in more than three months, as surging Treasury \u200byields and \u200bmounting bets \u2060on further Federal&#8217;s rate hikes kept the greenback near multi-month peaks.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Next week, domestic investors \u200bwill track a raft of month-end economic \u200bdata, \u2060including money supply, private sector credit, trade balance and budget balance, as well as producer inflation and second-quarter \u2060formal \u200bsector employment figures<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark \u200b2035 government bond was steady in early deals, with the yield unchanged \u200bat 8.72%.<\/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-46460","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand softened in early trade on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46460","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\/46460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46461,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46460\/revisions\/46461"}],"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=46460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}