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Johannesburg - The rand dipped against the US dollar on Friday but still outperformed oil-linked developing currencies that suffered as the price of Brent crude sank to a four-year low after Opec blocked calls to cut global output.
The local unit traded in a narrow range overnight in thin volume as US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. By 08:25 it weakened 0.3% to R11.0160/$.
Opec, the club of oil-producing countries, opted to roll over its output ceiling of 30 million barrels a day after calls by poorer members for output cuts to stimulate weak global prices.
Falling oil prices, down by over a third since June, boosted South Africa's limping economy, with October producer price inflation on Thursday at its lowest since December 2013. That helped send the yield on the benchmark government bond to a year low of 7.665%.
The plummet in crude prices is expected to hurt emerging economies dependent on oil exports, with Africa's largest economy, Nigeria, already forced to devalue its currency by 8% this week.
"For EMs which are net importers of oil, such as South Africa and Turkey, the oil price plummet is a positive on their terms of trade," economists from EM Analytics said in a note.
Local trade balance data due at 14:00 is, however, expected to show a growing deficit and could move the rand out its recent range, with a Reuter’s poll putting the gap at R7.1bn ($645m) for October.
