{"id":48387,"date":"2026-10-19T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48387"},"modified":"2026-10-19T09:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:00:35","slug":"rand-gains-slightly-as-traders-await-budget-speech-inflation-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-gains-slightly-as-traders-await-budget-speech-inflation-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand gains slightly as traders await budget speech, inflation data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand edged up in early trade on Monday as investors \u200blooked ahead to a key week for \u200ceconomic data, including Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana&#8217;s medium-term budget policy statement and September inflation figures.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200bRand traded at 16.4475, up roughly 0.2% \u200bfrom its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Investor focus is expected \u2060to centre on Wednesday&#8217;s medium-term budget policy statement, \u200bwhich could offer fresh clues on SA&#8217;s \u200bfiscal trajectory amid expectations of an improving budget balance and a more favourable sovereign ratings outlook.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Statistics SA is \u200balso set to release consumer inflation and \u200bretail sales on Wednesday, providing a snapshot of price \u200cpressures \u2060and consumer demand in Africa&#8217;s largest economy as Middle East conflict keeps fuel costs elevated.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nedbank economists expect headline inflation to accelerate to 4.8% in September \u200bfrom 4.4% \u200bin August, \u2060while annual retail sales growth is forecast to slow to 2.5% in \u200bAugust from 3.4% in July.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nedbank said higher \u200btransport \u2060costs, driven by rising fuel prices and R<span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">and<\/span>\u00a0depreciation, would be the main source of inflationary \u2060pressure<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond \u200bwas little changed in early deals, as the yield rose half \u200ba basis point to 8.7%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-48387","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand edged up in early trade on Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48387","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48389,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48387\/revisions\/48389"}],"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=48387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}