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Johannesburg - The rand was in danger of losing ground against the dollar for the third consecutive day on Tuesday as the nagging electricity woes kept investor sentiment depressed.
Investors were also focused on Thursday's monetary policy statement for the South African Reserve Bank's latest inflation and gross domestic product projections, although the market has largely priced in a "steady" call on interest rates.
At 08:48, the rand was trading at R11.4535 versus the dollar, not far off Monday's New York close at 11.4650.
The rand had fallen to 11.4930 in the previous session after state power utility Eskom, which has struggled to meet electricity demand since 2008, cut 2 000 megawatts of electricity from the grid on Monday to try and keep power demand from overwhelming capacity.
READ: Prepare yourself for a week of load shedding
"The rand was a meaningful underperformer yesterday, losing ground while practically all risk currencies gained," RMB currency analyst John Cairns noted.
"Eskom can certainly be blamed for some of this but the relative move also fits into our picture of a rand whose outperformance last week is not justified and which will struggle to hold its gains."
READ: Eskom: It’s load-shedding or die
The currency had rallied to 7 week highs last week after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it buy €60bn worth of assets each month to try and stimulate growth in the eurozone.
The electricity supply problem is just one of a myriad of structural problems that have plagued Africa's most developed economy in recent years, limiting annual growth to around 2% since a recession in 2009.
Investors were also focused on Thursday's monetary policy statement for the South African Reserve Bank's latest inflation and gross domestic product projections, although the market has largely priced in a "steady" call on interest rates.
At 08:48, the rand was trading at R11.4535 versus the dollar, not far off Monday's New York close at 11.4650.
The rand had fallen to 11.4930 in the previous session after state power utility Eskom, which has struggled to meet electricity demand since 2008, cut 2 000 megawatts of electricity from the grid on Monday to try and keep power demand from overwhelming capacity.
READ: Prepare yourself for a week of load shedding
"The rand was a meaningful underperformer yesterday, losing ground while practically all risk currencies gained," RMB currency analyst John Cairns noted.
"Eskom can certainly be blamed for some of this but the relative move also fits into our picture of a rand whose outperformance last week is not justified and which will struggle to hold its gains."
READ: Eskom: It’s load-shedding or die
The currency had rallied to 7 week highs last week after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it buy €60bn worth of assets each month to try and stimulate growth in the eurozone.
The electricity supply problem is just one of a myriad of structural problems that have plagued Africa's most developed economy in recent years, limiting annual growth to around 2% since a recession in 2009.
