Johannesburg - South African government bonds weakened sharply early on Wednesday and yields jumped to their highest in six weeks, tracking a slide in US treasuries in anticipation of imminent policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.
The local currency was steady, with traders expecting it to take some direction from local inflation data and retail sales numbers, ahead of the release of the minutes of the last Fed policy meeting later in the day.
The yield on the 2026 bond climbed as much as 12 basis points to 7.735%, a level it last reached on January 7, according to Thomson Reuters data.