JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand extended losses to a one-month low against the dollar on Monday as analysts bet key indicators such as the current account, mining and manufacturing production would show the economy was taking a beating.
This week sees the release of the central bank's current account report on Tuesday, which includes trade and spending data for the second quarter.
On Thursday Statistics South Africa will put out mining and manufacturing production numbers for July. The two sectors entered recession in the second quarter and dragged the whole economy into contraction in the first three months of 2014.
"The rand, together with other commodity-based currencies, lost ground after the import component of this morning's Chinese trade data proved to be softer than expected," Barclays Africa said in a market note.
China reported a 2.4 percent fall in its August imports, way below market expectations for a 1.7 percent rise. Later the rand extended those losses to 10.7950/dollar, its weakest since Aug. 8 and the worst performer in a basket of emerging market currencies tracked by Reuters.
"A wide current account deficit reading will serve as a reminder of South Africa's persistently large external funding requirements," Barclays said, adding that the rand could come under extended selling pressure during the latter half of the week.
Yields on government bonds rose, with that on the benchmark 2026 issue climbing 7 basis points to 8.095 percent.
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