Cape Town - The rand firmed almost 1% after Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba delivered what he called "a tough but hopeful budget".
Currency traders earlier said the rand exchange rate would be volatile throughout the almost two-hour delivery of the Budget Speech.
By 15:53 the local unit was trading 0.77% firmer at R11.63 to the dollar from an intra-day low of R11.78 against the greenback in the run-up to the Budget Speech.
Traders have pinned the range for the day at between R11.65 to R11.85/$.
The rand weakened to R11.73 from its overnight close of R11.72 earlier in the session after Statistics South Africa announced that CPI eased to 4.4% in January 2018, in line with expectations and down from 4.7% in December 2017. This was mainly due to a drop in the fuel price.
Globally the dollar has continued its short-term rally after a series of losses from January.
"This could be a technical recovery as fears regarding a weaker dollar policy from the US still loom," said TreasuryONE trader Gerard van der Westhuizen.
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