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Johannesburg - The rand weakened slightly on Friday but was still trading near its firmest level in over a week after a significant revision to the country's trade data and dovish remarks by incoming US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.
The rand was at R10.2300/$ at 08:08, 0.3% weaker than the previous day's New York close.
It hit a 9-day high of R10.1755 on Thursday after a revision by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) of the 2012 trade deficit.
Sars said it had cut the 2012 trade gap to R34.6bn from a previous R116.9bn after adjusting the data to incorporate trade with its neighbours, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
However, analysts said the impact on South Africa's current account deficit may be limited.
"While one cannot deny that the revision certainly leaves the South African balance of payments in a comparably better standing than it was in before and may help to partially reduce the structural risk attached to the rand by way of how much external financing is required to shore up the deficit, it does not change the fact that the deficit remains uncomfortably large," Tradition Analytics wrote in a note.
Yellen's defense of the US central bank's quantitative easing programme at a hearing on Thursday into her nomination to lead the bank also buoyed risky assets.
The yield on the 2026 government bond fell 10 basis points to 8.12% while that on the 2015 paper was 9.5 basis points lower at 6.07%
The rand was at R10.2300/$ at 08:08, 0.3% weaker than the previous day's New York close.
It hit a 9-day high of R10.1755 on Thursday after a revision by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) of the 2012 trade deficit.
Sars said it had cut the 2012 trade gap to R34.6bn from a previous R116.9bn after adjusting the data to incorporate trade with its neighbours, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
However, analysts said the impact on South Africa's current account deficit may be limited.
"While one cannot deny that the revision certainly leaves the South African balance of payments in a comparably better standing than it was in before and may help to partially reduce the structural risk attached to the rand by way of how much external financing is required to shore up the deficit, it does not change the fact that the deficit remains uncomfortably large," Tradition Analytics wrote in a note.
Yellen's defense of the US central bank's quantitative easing programme at a hearing on Thursday into her nomination to lead the bank also buoyed risky assets.
The yield on the 2026 government bond fell 10 basis points to 8.12% while that on the 2015 paper was 9.5 basis points lower at 6.07%
