JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand was little changed in early trade on Monday after weakening last week along with other emerging market currencies.

At 0635 GMT, the rand traded at 18.8175 against the dollar, 0.04% higher than its closing level on Friday.

The dollar last traded at 103.100, around 0.15% stronger against a basket of global currencies.

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“The renewed rand weakness over the past week has been driven by generalized weakness in emerging markets, rather than anything South Africa-specific or broad-based dollar moves,” Rand Merchant Bank analysts said in a research note.

Emerging market weakness has been driven by falling commodity prices, tighter monetary policy in developed economies and the Chinese yuan’s weakness, analysts added.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was slightly stronger in early deals, with the yield down 2 basis point to 10.490%.