JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand was slightly weaker in early trade on Tuesday before the release of first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data, which is widely expected to be lacklustre.
At 0610 GMT the rand traded at 17.8625 against the dollar, down about 0.1% on Monday’s closing level.
Economists polled by Reuters estimate GDP will be unchanged from the fourth quarter.
The statistics agency will publish the data at 0930 GMT.
Nedbank economists said in a research note that they expected sectors including mining and manufacturing to have performed poorly, “aggravated by persistent inefficiencies in essential economic infrastructure”.
South African rand gains before manufacturing PMI, vehicle sales data
The country’s coalition government is trying to lift growth through reforms, but longstanding problems like logistics bottlenecks at the ports and on the freight rail network continue to hold back Africa’s biggest economy.
The benchmark 2035 government bond was marginally weaker in early deals, with the yield up 1 basis point at 10.215%.
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