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Johannesburg - South Africa's net gold and foreign exchange reserves rose 2.3% to $38.784bn in October, largely on a jump in currency holdings and a higher gold price.
Gross reserves stood at $39.788bn, up from $39.142bn the previous month, the central bank said in a statement.
Analysts said the data showed the central bank kept buying dollars October, in line with suggestions from its governor Tito Mboweni that his institution, worried about the impact of a relatively strong rand, would continue to build up reserves when possible.
"It looks like they have been quite active in the market, taking dollars out of the market," said Colen Garrow, economist at financial services group Brait.
"I think the signal conveyed from the reserves numbers is that they don't want the rand to strengthen more."
Mboweni and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan have both warned that the rand's gains this year may be overdone and could hurt some sectors of the economy.
The currency has weakened over the past three weeks but remains about 20% stronger against the dollar. It was steady at around R7.60 against the US currency after the reserves data was released.
The central bank said foreign currency holdings rose by $488m to $35.601bn, while gold reserves climbed by $158m to $4.187bn, thanks to a higher gold price.
The central bank has steadily lifted reserves over the past five years after it brought a long-standing negative position into balance in 2004. However, the pace slowed when the rand weakened sharply late in 2008 amid global market turmoil.
The pace of accumulation has accelerated again over the past four months after the rand gained ground on most currencies and thanks to a capital injection from the International Monetary Fund, part of a global allocation.
But, in spite South Africa's reservations about the rand's strength, its gross reserves still lag emerging market peers and foreign currency buying has been constrained by the cost of accumulating it, given a ballooning budget deficit and an already sharp increase in bonds issuance.
- Reuters