JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand slumped nearly 1 percent against the dollar on Monday, the weakest performance among 25 emerging market currencies, as renewed concerns about political turmoil in Ukraine and Greece's debt woes dented risk appetite.
The domestic economy's dim economic prospects were also a drag on sentiment, with rolling electricity blackouts as state power utility Eskom struggles to meet demand expected to cut growth this year.
At 1618 GMT the local unit was down 0.8 percent at 11.5965 versus the dollar compared with its previous close.
Against the euro, it fell 1 percent to at 13.1525.
The rand mirrored a retreat in global emerging markets as weak Chinese trade data and turmoil in Ukraine and Greece sent investors fleeing to so-called safe haven assets like those denominated in the Japanese yen.
South African government bonds were not spared from the sell-off, with the yield for debt due in 2026 climbing to 7.485 percent during the session, the highest in more than three weeks.
Yields came back to 7.44 percent by the close, still up 1 basis point from Friday.
The current growth and inflation trajectory remained supportive to the South African bond market, and suggested the current upturn on yields was unsustainable, Tradition Analytics said in a note.
"We believe that the current yield rise represents an extended technical retrace from the very protracted period of suppression through January, but that it is now looking overdone," it added.
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