JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand weakened early on Thursday ahead of the announcement of municipal elections results later in the day, with the outcome expected to show the country's ruling party recorded its poorest ever electoral showing.
At 0640 GMT, the rand traded 0.44% weaker at 15.3200 against the dollar, giving up some overnight gains that were spurred by a weaker dollar after the US Federal Reserve said it would not rush to raise interest rates.
South Africa's electoral commission is due to announce final results in Monday's local government polls at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), according to a statement from the presidency.
On Wednesday, with results in from over 80% of more than 23,000 polling stations, the ruling African National Congress had 46% of the national vote, down from 54% in 2016, itself the worst result yet. Party officials acknowledged public anger over poor services and corruption.
Such a result could weaken the hand of President Cyril Ramaphosa and dent his efforts to drive reforms.
In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark 2030 government bond was down 6.5 basis points to 9.64%.
Comments
Comments are closed.