JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand was flat in early trade on Thursday against the US dollar, losing all the ground gained in the previous session following the finance minister’s budget speech.
At 0704 GMT, the rand traded at 18.2575 per dollar, close to its previous close of 18.2525.
Earlier on Wednesday it had strengthened to 18.1250 after the news that the government will take on more than half of state utility Eskom’s debt, as Eskom implements South Africa’s worst blackouts on record.
South African rand steady; fiscal policy in focus this week
The rand has been one of the worst-performing emerging market currencies this year.
“Unfortunately, the budget announcement did not offer as much relief to the ZAR as many might’ve hoped,” said ETM Analytics in a research note.
One factor weighing on the currency is that global watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets standards on combating money laundering and illicit financing, could add South Africa to its “grey list” at meetings on Friday, ETM said.
Being added to that list would be a reputational knock for South Africa and could hurt local asset prices, as grey-listed countries are subject to greater monitoring by the FATF on concern that they are at higher risk for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The government’s benchmark 2030 bond was weaker in early deals, with the yield up 1.5 basis points at 10.170%.
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