JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand weakened against the dollar on Monday, hit by on-going power constraints and weaker-than-expected Chinese trade data.
State power utility Eskom said it would institute further rolling blackouts, following its largest power cuts in 9 months over the weekend, as one of its power stations failed to operate at full capacity.
News of the cuts on Friday helped send the local unit to its weakest against the dollar since January and just short of the 11.4000 mark it last hit in 2008. It later recouped some losses.
By 0619 GMT the rand traded 0.15 percent weaker at 11.3575 per dollar following a close of 11.3400 in New York and looked set for further moves lower when South Africa's current account figures are released at 0800 GMT.
Economists predict the current account shortfall will shrink to 5.8 percent of gross domestic product from 6.2 percent in the previous quarter, according to a Reuters poll.
"Such a narrowing would be cold comfort in times when South Africa is experiencing sporadic foreign inflows and outflows," ETM Analytics said in a morning note.
"It implies the fallout will continue to lie with the rand whenever the country's major external deficits cannot be adequately financed".
The rand was also hit as data showed Chinese demand for imports fell by 6.7 percent, the biggest drop since March and a further sign the world's second-biggest economy, and a major export destination for South Africa, is cooling.
Government bonds were flat in early trade, with the yield on the benchmark issue due in 2026 unmoved at 7.765 percent.
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