The South African Rand was weaker against Sterling and the majority of its most traded peers after demand for riskier assets waned as the political impasse in the United States drags on.
With the October 17th debt ceiling deadline quickly approaching investors are becoming increasingly jittery that no deal will be made to break the deadlock between the Republican and Democrat party’s.
“Markets are focused almost exclusively on the US government shutdown, with no progress over the weekend, risk aversion is starting to rise” said John Cairns, a currency strategist at Rand Merchant Bank.
In a week that is not dominated by scares about the world’s largest economy the Rand would likely have found support after a month long strike in the South African car manufacturing sector came to a close over the weekend. The strike ended after the National Union of Metalworkers agreed to a 10% pay rise this year and a further 8% in the next.
The strike had been heavily affecting the nation’s exports and had caused huge disruption in the car production industry which is estimated to have cost the economy an estimated $2 billion in lost output.
Data released earlier during Monday’s session showed that the amount of gold and foreign exchange reserves in the country increased in September to $45.753 billion from the $45.588 billion recorded in August. The Rand was little moved by the data release as all eyes are locked firmly on events taking place in the US.
Current South African (ZAR) Exchange Rates:
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The US Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 10.0295
The Euro/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 13.6230
The New Zealand Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of 8.3164 >
The Canadian Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently trading in the region of 9.7196 >
(Correct as of 14:30 pm GMT)
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