{"id":48638,"date":"2026-10-21T12:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T10:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48638"},"modified":"2026-10-21T12:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T10:34:39","slug":"rand-flat-before-mid-year-budget-review","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-flat-before-mid-year-budget-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand flat before mid-year budget review"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was little changed in early trade on Wednesday as investors avoided taking large \u200bpositions ahead of the mid-year budget review, which is \u200cexpected to provide clues on the country&#8217;s fiscal outlook and credit-rating prospects.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 16.4075 against the Dollar, \u200ba whisker away from Tuesday&#8217;s close<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana \u200bis due to deliver the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Economists expect Godongwana to present an improved \u200bfiscal outlook, with a revenue windfall bolstering a push to \u200bregain an investment-grade credit rating.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But record-high fuel prices, weak economic growth and pressure to spend ahead of November 4 local government elections could \u200blimit how much of the windfall the Treasury saves.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Statistics SA is set to release consumer inflation and retail sales on \u200cWednesday, \u2060providing a snapshot of price pressures and consumer demand in Africa&#8217;s largest economy as the Middle East conflict keeps fuel costs elevated.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Economists polled by Reuters expect headline inflation to accelerate to \u200b4.7% in \u200bSeptember from 4.4% \u2060in August, while annual retail sales growth is forecast to edge up to 3.5% in \u200bAugust from 3.4% in July.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Investec forecasts inflation \u200bat 4.6%, \u2060while Nedbank expects a reading of 4.8%, citing higher transport costs driven by rising fuel prices and rand weakness.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand \u2060fell more \u200bthan 2% against the Dollar in \u200bSeptember.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was flat in early deals, with the \u200byield at 8.735%.<\/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-48638","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was little changed in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48638","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":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48641,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48638\/revisions\/48641"}],"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=48638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}