Johannesburg - The rand was unmoved by the
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision to keep the repo rate unchanged
at 5.5% for the eighth consecutive meeting.
A survey of ten economists showed that none expected any change in
the repo rate. The repo rate was last cut by 50 basis points in
November 2010.
At 15:33 local time the rand was bid at R8.3211 to the dollar from
8.3045 at 15:00 when the South African Reserve Bank governor Gill
Marcus started speaking. This compared with Wednesday's close of 8.3737.
It was bid at R10.4780 to the euro from R10.5423 and at R13.0638
against sterling from R13.1944 at the previous close.
The euro was bid at $1.2594 from $1.2608 at 15:00 and $1.2594 at Wednesday's close.
"The rand briefly went to R8.30 when the governor started
speaking, but as the euro sank below $1.26, so the rand followed,
indicating that the MPC had no effect on the rand," a local trader said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble said on Thursday that it would be better if Berlin and Paris
displayed more public harmony as both countries were committed to
finding common ground.
"We mustn't give the impression of fundamental disagreements,"
Schaeuble said, adding that he agreed with his French counterpart Pierre
Moscovici on this as financial markets remained nervous.
Close ties between Paris and Berlin have traditionally been
crucial for Europe and the present disagreement between France's new
President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the
need for more growth incentives and less austerity have added to
uncertainty about the future of the eurozone.
Due to problems in some of the member states in the eurozone,
there is currently a "confidence crisis in the euro as a whole",
Schaeuble told reporters after a meeting with his colleagues from
Germany's 16 states. But the countries affected must take action to
solve their problems as there was no alternative, he added.
The ongoing debt crisis and the problems in Greece and Spain in
particular have unsettled markets in recent days, pushing the euro
lower.