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Johannesburg - The rand was a tad weaker against the dollar early on Friday, hovering near a five-week low ahead of local trade numbers due out later in the day and a slew of data next week.
At 09:05 the rand was trading 0.24% weaker at R12.1595/$ its closing level on Thursday.
The rand touched a five-week low of R12.2055 per dollar on Thursday, according to Thomson Reuters data, after the Institute of International Finance said capital flows to emerging economies were projected to fall.
"Local event risk is elevated today, with credit data in the morning and trade and budget figures in the afternoon," John Cairns of Rand Merchant Bank said in a note.
"Next week includes elevated event risk. Not only is there the usual first week of the month data, which includes PMI figures and US non-farm payrolls, but we also expect a Fitch rating downgrade of South Africa."
April credit growth quickened to 9.35% year-on-year, while the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply rose by 8.38%, The Reserve Bank data showed.
Fitch issues its ratings update next Friday. The ratings agency maintained its BBB rating for South Africa in December last year.
In fixed income, the yield for the 2026 benchmark was down 1.5 basis points to 8.165%.
