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Johannesburg - The rand could continue strengthening and South Africa would do better focusing on its benefits rather than always harping on its drawbacks.
This was the message from certain economists and even the Reserve Bank during the past week.
On Friday, Colin Coleman, managing director of Goldman Sachs in South Africa, told the South African Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Sacci) that the investment bank expected the rand could strengthen considerably to R6.20 against the US dollar over the next 12 months.
The strengthening would be mainly because of sustained weakness of the dollar, said Coleman, and South Africa should gear itself accordingly.
There would be both good and bad scenarios, and both would offer challenges as well as opportunities, he said.
This followed Reserve Bank governor
Gill Marcus's comments at the announcement of the bank's monetary policy review that, although the bank was aware of the risks of the strong rand, the strengthening of the currency had also made a massive contribution to lower inflation, creating added room to manoeuvre.
South Africa had a massive infrastructure construction programme under way. The country should turn the strong exchange rate to account by now importing what was needed and saving later, she said.
- Sake24.com