Johannesburg – The rand weakened in late afternoon on Friday after SA’s trade deficit widened more than expected in August to R12.2bn.
At 15:23 local time‚ the rand was bid at R8.2827 to the dollar from R8.2192 at Thursday’s close. It was bid at R10.7044 to the euro from its previous close of R10.6139 and at R13.4101 against sterling from R13.3425 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2931 from $1.2910 at Wednesday’s close.
“The rand weakened this afternoon‚ which appears to be on the trade deficit‚ which grew to R12.2bn‚” said Tony van Dyk‚ a currency dealer from the Iquad group.
“The rand should end stronger; this morning it lost ground on the Moody’s downgrade but that was expected. In the longer term we will track the euro again in the near future‚” Van Dyk said.